Columbia  ^uibcrsiitp 

intljcCitpotJlflul^orli 

LIBRARY 


GIVEN   BY 


."^oVX 


/o'^Wv.  V<i 


CWN' 


LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP 
HARE 


/mioM^  jf.  y&Cui^ 


THE  LIFE  AND  LABORS 
OF  BISHOP  HARE 

APOSTLE     TO    THE     SIOUX 


BY 

M.  A.  DeWOLFE  HOWE 


flew  l?orft 

STURGIS  &  WALTON 

COMPANY 

1911 


Copyright  1911 
By  STURGIS  &  WALTON  COMPANY 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  October,  1911 


6IFT  OF  M.  SHH  LtW 
MAY  I  6  1« 


9  ^1-  01 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I     The  Boy  and  the  Man,  1838-1859  ...  3 

II     In  Parish  and  Missions  Office,  1860-1872  12 

III     A  Pioneer  in  Niobrara,  1873-1878  ...  41 
IV     Religion,  School  and  Government,  1873- 

1878 80 

V     Trials  of  Body  and  Spirit,  1873-1878-1887  136 

VI     The  Hard  Road  to  Civilization,  1878-1883  172 

VII     The  Missionary  to  Two  Races,  1883-1891.  218 

VIII     In  Japan  and  China,  1891-1892      .      .      .245 

IX     Fruits  of  Experience,  1891-1908     .      .      .  278 

X     The  Divorce  Reform  Campaign,  1893-1908.  354! 

XI     To  the  Last,  1895-1909 378 


NOTE 

THE  inscription  on  a  memorial  in  St.  Luke's 
Church,  Philadelphia,  to  my  father,  the  first 
Bishop  of  Central  Pennsylvania,  was  written 
by  his  son-in-law.  Bishop  Hare.  Beneath  a 
summary  of  personal  and  official  quahties  a  sen- 
tence reads:  "This  tablet  is  placed  here  that  he 
may  still  speak." 

So  in  turn  this  book  is  written  that  Bishop 
Hare  "may  still  speak."  In  a  hfe  crowded  with 
action  there  was  no  opportunity  for  the  writing 
of  books.  But  he  wrote  abundantly  and  well. 
In  letters,  in  printed  reports  and  pamphlets,  a 
large  body  of  his  writing  has  come  into  my  hands. 
Out  of  this  material  it  has  been  my  aim  to  make 
a  book  which  shall  be  substantially  his  book. 
Such  it  will  be  if  it  can  carry  ^dth  it  not  only  his 
speech  but  also  something  of  that  spirit  of  the 
saint  and  the  knight  which  illuminated  all  his 
arduous  days. 

Of  the  physical  structure  of  the  book,  it  is  to 
be  said  that  in  arranging  a  narrative  drawn  so 
largely  from  writings  produced  with  no  thought 


NOTE 

of  continuity,  it  has  been  necessaiy  to  face  delib- 
erately the  dangers  of  a  disjointed  effect.  If 
this  effect  is  felt,  the  reader  may  be  asked  to  con- 
sider whether  the  disadvantage  of  re-casting  the 
words  in  which  Bishop  Hare  told  his  own  story 
would  not  have  been  greater. 

IMany  persons  related  to  Bishop  Hare  through 
the  kinship  of  blood  or  of  common  interest  have 
rendered  valuable  aid  in  the  preparation  of  this 
book.  Special  thanks  are  due  to  his  sister,  Miss 
jMary  H.  Hare,  to  his  son.  Dr.  Hobart  Amory 
Hare,  both  of  Philadelphia,  and  to  Miss  Mary  B. 
Peabody,  of  Sioux  Falls,  South  Dakota. 

M.  A.  DeW.  H. 

Boston,  July,  1911. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

From    a    photograph    of    Bishop    Hare    in    later    life, 
taken  by  Gutekunst Frontispiece 

FACING    PAGE 

Bishop  Hare  about  1880 .  52 

Bishop  Hare  and  his  early  traveling  equipment     .      .  72 

Scene  at  an  Indian  Convocation 134< 

Bishop  Hare  in  the  Chapel  of  All  Saints  School     .      .  220 

Bishop  Hare  and  his  Japanese  Interpreter  ....  258 

A  Woman's  Auxiliary  Meeting  in  South  Dakota    .       .  286 

Bishop  Tuttle,  Bishop  Johnson  and  Bishop  Hare  in 
the  Chapel  of  All  Saints  School 392 


LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP 
HARE 


LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP 
HARE 


THE   BOY   AND   THE   MAN 

1838-1859 

SANCTITY  and  chivalry  were  so  inherent  in 
the  nature  of  William  Hobart  Hare  that 
"saint"  and  "knight"  stand  in  the  first  rank  of 
the  generic  terms  by  which  he  may  be  character- 
ized. More  specifically  he  was  also  an  "apostle" 
and  a  "pioneer."  If  John  Eliot  had  lived  in  the 
nineteenth  century  it  is  easy  to  imagine  that  his 
apostlesliip  to  the  Indians  would  have  expressed 
itself  in  many  of  the  words  and  deeds  of  Bishop 
Hare.  As  a  pioneer,  moreover,  he  exerted  an 
influence  not  exclusively  limited  to  the  work  of 
a  Christian  missionarj'-.  He  bore  an  important 
part  in  preparing  a  wild  region  for  civilization; 
and  when  civilization  began  to  come,  it  came  the 
more  quickly  and  surely  for  what  he  had  done 
and  continued  to  do  towards  making  the  Indians 

3 


4      LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

better  neighbors  to  the  whites  and  to  each  other, 
and  towards  working  a  corresponding  benefit  to 
the  whites  themselves.  This  vital  and  many- 
sided  service  he  rendered  through  overcoming 
difficulties  which  a  man  of  his  sensitive  fibre,  both 
physical  and  spiritual,  might  have  dodged  with- 
out cowardice.  He  faced  them  all,  with  a  liigh 
fortitude,  a  helpful  humor,  a  deep  devotion  to 
the  Christian  religion  as  a  system,  and  to  its 
founder  as  a  living,  personal  director  of  daily 
life. 

When  such  things  can  truly  be  said  of  a  man, 
it  is  impossible  to  say  also  that  he  is  of  those  re- 
garding whom 

".     .     .     no  one  asks 
Who  or  what  they  have  been." 

The  world  has  a  right  to  ask  and  to  learn  the  es- 
sential facts  about  them.  A  life  that  signifies 
much  in  the  living  must  also  signify  something  in 
the  telling — unless  the  biographer  obscure  it  ut- 
terly. It  is  here  his  specific  task  to  show  with 
what  reason  the  titles  of  saint  and  knight  and 
apostle  and  pioneer  may  be  linked  with  one 
modern  name. 

William  Hobart  Hare  was  born  in  Princeton, 
New  Jersey,   May   17,  1838.     The  science  of 


THE  BOY  AND  THE  MAN  5 

heredity  ma}^  some  day  demand  a  new  structure 
for  biography,  with  the  date  of  a  man's  birth 
standing  midway  between  ages  of  preparation 
to  live  and  years  of  living.  The  genealogical 
pages  of  some  biographies  lead  one  to  suspect 
that  this  fashion  has  already  won  its  votaries. 
Indeed  there  are  lives  in  which  inheritance  and 
performance  are  so  closely  related  that  the  temp- 
tation to  enlarge  upon  the  bare  facts  of  ancestry 
is  somewhat  difficult  to  resist.  Such  a  life  was 
Bishop  Hare's ;  but  the  new  plan  of  biography  is 
not  yet  the  accepted  plan,  and  in  the  present  in- 
stance a  brief  suggestion  of  the  qualities  and 
tendencies  derived  from  earlier  generations  will 
suffice. 

In  physical  aspect  Bishop  Hare  represented 
clearly,  as  any  picture  of  him  "s\ill  show,  what 
may  be  called  the  best  Anglican  type.  The 
English  churchman  of  gentle  breeding,  of  native 
and  acquired  distinction,  has  rendered  it  familiar. 
Such  men  are  born  both  to  their  appearance  and 
to  their  profession.  In  the  lineage  of  William 
Hobart  Hare  there  was  quite  enough  to  account 
both  for  the  outward  and  for  the  inward  man. 
On  each  side  of  his  parentage  he  was  a  son, 
immediately  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church; 
and,  more  remotely  he  sprang  both  from  the 
New  England  Puritans  and  the  Pennsylvania 
Friends  whose  beliefs  and  standards  have  played 


6      LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

so  important  a  part  in  the  religious  and  political 
life  of  America. 

His  father,  the  Rev.  Dr.  George  Emlen  Hare, 
an  eminent  Biblical  scholar,  one  of  the  American 
Old  Testament  Committee  appointed  under  the 
direction  of  the  Convocation  of  Canterbury  in 
1870  for  the  revision  of  the  authorized  version 
of  the  English  Bible,  was  for  many  years  a 
teacher  in  Philadelphia — first  in  a  temporary 
professorship  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania ; 
then  at  the  head  of  the  old  Protestant  Episcopal 
Academy  for  Boys,  revived  in  1846  by  Bishop 
Alonzo  Potter ;  and  finally  as  professor  of  Bibli- 
cal Learning  and  Exegesis  in  the  Divinity  School 
in  West  Philadelphia,  of  which  he  was  the  first 
dean.  "From  the  period  of  his  ordination,"  it  is 
written  in  a  brief  sketch  of  his  hfe,  "the  Scrip- 
tures in  their  original  texts  had  never  been  half 
a  day  out  of  his  hands."  One  sees  him  in  mem- 
ory, a  typical  figure  of  the  scholar,  formal, 
remote,  known  of  those  who  knew  him  as  de- 
manding of  himself  the  same  exacting  standard  of 
industry  and  integrity  that  he  demanded  of  his 
pupils.  In  his  veins  ran  the  blood  most  char- 
acteristic of  Philadelphia.  His  mother's  great- 
grandfather, George  Emlen,  had  come  from 
England  with  William  Penn.  His  own  grand- 
father, Robert  Hare,  coming  from  England 
in     1773,    and    marrying    Margaret    Willing, 


THE  BOY  AND  THE  MAN  7 

a  daughter  of  Charles  WiUing  and  Ann  Ship- 
pen,  alhed  himself  at  once  with  representative 
Philadelphia  families.  One  of  the  sons  of  the 
emigrant  Robert  Hare  was  the  distinguished 
chemist  of  the  same  name,  who  discovered  the 
oxyhydrogen  blowpipe  and  other  important  aids 
to  the  study  of  his  science.  Another  son,  Charles 
Wilhng  Hare,  the  father  of  George  Emlen 
Hare,  won  himself  an  eminent  place  as  a  legal 
practitioner,  in  the  teaching  of  law  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania,  and  in  public  affairs. 
Beyond  what  the  great-uncle  and  grandfather  of 
Bishop  Hare  gave  thus  to  the  community,  the 
family  in  every  generation  has  contributed  abun- 
dantly to  the  intellectual  and  social  life  of  Phil- 
adelphia. 

Perhaps  even  the  greater  number  of  deter- 
mining qualities  in  the  compound  of  inheritances 
came  to  Bishop  Hare  through  his  maternal  an- 
cestry. His  mother  was  Elizabeth  Catharine  Ho' 
bart,  a  daughter  of  the  Right  Rev.  John  Henry 
Hobart,  Bishop  of  New  York.  Bishop  Hobart, 
descended  from  the  Rev.  Peter  Hobart,  first 
minister  of  the  Puritan  settlers  of  Hingham, 
Massachusetts,  specifically  foreshadowed  his 
grandson  in  his  important  work  for  the  Oneida 
Indians  still  within  his  jurisdiction,  in  a  keen  in- 
terest in  education  perpetuated  in  the  name  of 
Hobart  College,  and  in  the  "banner"  of  "Evan- 


8      LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

gelical  Faith — Apostolic  Order"  which  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Henry  Anthon,  in  a  funeral  sermon  on  his 
bishop,  ascribed  to  him. 

The  wife  of  Bishop  Hobart — to  "explain"  the 
grandson  still  more  fully — was  a  daughter  of  that 
vigorous  defender  of  Anglicanism  in  America, 
the  Rev.  Thomas  Bradbury  Chandler,  of  Eliza- 
bethtown,  New  Jersey.  Though  descended 
from  Governor  John  Winthrop  and  from  a 
brother  of  that  militant  Cromwellian  divine, 
Hugh  Peters,  Chandler  was  the  representative 
of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gos- 
pel in  Foreign  Parts  who  came  nearest  to  being 
the  bishop  of  the  Colonies  before  the  Revolution. 
When  it  broke  out  he  was  obliged,  as  a  Tory,  to 
take  refuge  in  England,  leaving  his  family  for 
ten  years,  unmolested  by  those  from  whom  he 
differed,  in  New  Jersey.  At  the  restoration 
of  peace  the  government  offered  him  the  first 
Colonial  bishopric  of  the  English  Church,  that 
of  Nova  Scotia,  and  filled  the  place,  which  he 
declined  by  reason  of  age  and  desire  to  return 
to  his  own  flock,  with  an  appointee  of  his  naming. 
The  granddaughter  of  that  ardent  churchman, 
the  mother  of  the  ten  children  of  whom  Bishop 
Hare  was  fifth,  was  a  woman  of  the  warmest 
affections  and  truest  piety,  and  exercised  endur- 
ing influence  upon  the  lives  for  which  she  was 
responsible.     At   a   Christmas   celebration   near 


THE  BOY  AND  THE  MAN  9 

the  end  of  her  long  Hfe  she  broke  her  leg  by  a 
fall  while  playing  blind-man's-buff  with  her 
grandchildren.  The  bare  fact  carries  with  it 
some  suggestion  of  her  spirit  and  of  its  value  in 
the  family  of  which  her  scholar-husband  w^as  the 
head.  Three  of  Bishop  Hare's  sisters  have  sur- 
vived him,  and  two  brothers,  Mr.  James  Mont- 
gomery Hare  of  New  York,  and  Mr.  Robert 
Emott  Hare  of  Philadelpliia. 

When  William  Hobart  Hare  was  born  in 
Princeton,  his  father  was  rector  of  Trinity 
Church  in  that  town.  It  was  in  1843  that  the 
family  established  itself  permanently  in  Phila- 
delphia, where  the  institutions  with  which  the 
father  became  connected  provided  the  son  in  turn 
with  the  instruments  of  his  formal  education. 
His  thorough  use  of  these  means  is  revealed  in 
the  quaint  memorials  of  his  good  standing  in 
school  and  college.  Between  1848  and  1855 
there  were  many  announcements  on  the  blue 
paper  of  the  Episcopal  Academy  that  "The 
name  of  William  Hobart  Hare  has  been  sent  to 
the  Bishop  of  the  Diocese,  and  to  the  Board  of 
Trustees,  as  deserving  commendation  for  in- 
dustry, punctuaUty  and  pro]3riety  of  deport- 
ment." On  three  of  the  last  four  of  these  notices 
the  word  "especial"  precedes  "commendation." 
In  September  of  1855  he  entered  the  Sophomore 
Class  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.    Here 


10     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

he  maintained  his  high  rank  as  a  student.  At 
the  end  of  his  first  term  his  name  stood  highest 
in  his  class  in  the  "Roll  of  Honorary  Distinc- 
tion," and  in  succeeding  terms  he  ranked  repeat- 
edly from  first  to  fourth  in  the  "First  Class  of 
Distinguished  Students."  But  his  health — es- 
pecially that  of  his  eyes — and  the  feeling  that  the 
family  resources  were  far  too  slender  to  warrant 
his  completing  the  college  course,  removed  him 
from  the  University  at  the  end  of  his  Junior 
year. 

If  he  ever  thought  of  preparing  himself  for 
any  work  in  the  world  but  that  of  the  Christian 
ministry,  the  evidences  of  such  uncertainty  have 
disappeared.  His  nature  and  the  influences  with 
which  he  was  surrounded  pointed  clearly  in  one 
direction,  and — apparently  without  qualm  or 
question — ^he  prepared  himself  to  walk  in  it. 
One  of  his  masters  at  the  Episcopal  Academy 
had  established  a  classical  school  of  his  own,  St. 
Mark's  Academy,  in  Philadelphia.  Knowing 
and  admiring  young  Hare  he  asked  him  to  be- 
come an  assistant  in  this  school.  The  offer  was 
accepted,  and  the  duties  of  teaching  did  not  pre- 
vent the  continuance  of  study — now  at  the  Di- 
vinity School  in  direct  preparation  for  the  min- 
istry. The  first  crowning  of  all  these  labors 
came  with  his  admission  to  the   diaconate  by 


THE  BOY  AND  THE  MAN  11 

Bishop  Bowman,  June  19,  1859,  when  he  was 
only  a  month  beyond  twenty-one. 

He  was  hardly  more  than  a  boy,  therefore, 
when  he  began  the  work  of  his  life.  The  school- 
teaclier  under  whom  he  first  studied  and  then 
taught  is  perhaps  better  qualified  than  any  one 
else  to  recall  the  beginnings  of  Bishop  Hare's 
career,  and  from  the  Rev.  Dr.  J.  Andrews  Har- 
ris, of  Chestnut  Hill,  Philadelphia,  comes  the 
following  statement: 

"In  him  the  boy  was  in  very  truth  'the  father 
of  the  man.'  The  traits  of  quiet  dignity  of  man- 
ner, of  unselfishness,  transparent  candor,  inflexi- 
ble faithfulness  to  what  he  beheved  to  be  duty 
and  to  his  friends,  and,  above  all,  a  lofty  personal 
purity  of  thought  and  deed,  were  not  something 
new,  superimposed  upon  his  younger  by  his 
advancing  years.  They  were  not  the  graft  of 
maturity.  They  were  simply  an  expression  of 
what  always  seemed  to  belong  to  him,  to  belong 
to  his  very  nature.  From  a  boy,  he  was  always 
what  I  believe  to  be  the  highest  type  of  man- 
hood— a  clean  and  perfect  Christian  Gentleman." 


II 

IN  PARISH  AND  MISSIONS  OFFICE 

1860-1872 

JUST  as  William  Hare  passed  naturally  from 
the  studies  of  boyhood  into  those  for  the 
ministry,  and  thence  into  the  ministry  itself, 
so  the  duties  of  his  calling  presented  themselves 
first  at  his  very  door.  Near  to  his  father's  house 
in  Philadelphia  was  St.  Luke's  Church,  of  which 
the  Rev.  Dr.  M.  A.  DeWolfe  Howe  was  rector. 
Here  the  young  clergyman's  work  began,  soon 
after  the  taking  of  deacon's  orders,  in  the  post 
of  assistant  minister.  St.  Luke's  was  a  large 
parish,  with  many  activities  both  within  and 
beyond  the  walls  of  the  parish  church  on  Thir- 
teenth Street.  It  afforded  a  full  opportunity 
for  the  discovery  of  a  young  man's  powers  both 
by  himself  and  by  others.  The  immediate  result 
of  this  discovery  by  others  was  that  in  May  of 
1861  Mr.  Hare  became  rector  of  St.  Paul's 
Church  in  the  Philadelphia  suburb  of  Chestnut 
Hill.  In  May  of  the  following  year  Bishop 
Alonzo  Potter  ordained  him  to  the  priesthood. 

12 


IN  PARISH  AND  MISSIONS  OFFICE       13 

Meanwhile,  on  October  30,  1861,  his  marriage 
with  Mary  Amory  Howe  had  taken  place.  She 
was  a  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Howe  of  St. 
Luke's  and  his  first  wife,  JuHa  Bowen  Amory 
of  Roxbury,  Massachusetts.  To  her  young  hus- 
band of  twenty-three  she  brought  a  sympathetic 
understanding  of  his  profession  and  its  demands. 
In  purity  and  beaut}^  of  character,  in  respon- 
siveness to  all  promptings  of  the  religious  nature, 
she  was,  to  a  marked  degree,  his  counterpart. 
"We  are  very  cozily  settled  at  Chestnut  Hill," 
he  wrote  to  Miss  E.  N.  Biddle,  within  two  months 
of  his  marriage,  "and  living  almost  too  happily 
for  earth."  Near  the  end  of  the  same  letter  to 
this  dear  older  friend  of  the  young  couple  and 
their  families,  a  lady  rarelj^  distinguished  for 
piety  and  good  works,  he  wrote  of  his  bride: 
"She  is  fast  eclipsing  the  Rector  of  St.  Paul's, 
Chestnut  Hill,  and  he  is  glad  if  he  is  only  allowed 
to  shine  in  reflected  light.  I  have  discovered  by 
experience  what  I  ought  to  have  known  before, 
that  if  a  candle  is  ambitious  of  being  seen,  it  is 
very  suicidal  for  it  to  make  love  to  the  sun/^ 

Again  in  this  letter,  devoted  by  no  means 
entirely  to  the  enthusiasm  of  the  newly  married, 
he  wrote:  "We  have  been  depleted  as  much  as 
we  shall  be  by  the  return  to  town  of  the  summer 
residents,  and  I  am  glad  to  find  that  the  places 
of  the  absentees  are  almost  entirely  supplied  by 


14     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

the  middle  and  lower  classes  who  had  been 
crowded  out  by  the  influx  of  crinohnes  and  silks. 
The  new  church  will  be  under  roof  in  a  few 
days,  and  I  hope  the  time  may  never  come  again 
when  it  cannot  be  said  of  my  church,  'To  the  poor 
the  Gospel  is  preached.'  " 

Here  spoke  the  future  missionary  bishop, 
though  still  in  the  youthful  stage  which  set 
"crinolines  and  silks"  over  against  "the  middle 
and  lower  classes."  In  the  letters  of  this  period 
there  are,  moreover,  evidences  of  his  following 
the  progress  of  the  war  with  a  fervent  patriotism, 
and,  by  inference  from  his  declination  of  calls 
to  other  parishes,  many  tokens  of  the  impres- 
sion he  was  beginning  to  make.  The  regular 
course  of  his  work  in  the  ministry,  however,  was 
sorely  affected  by  the  rapidly  failing  health  of 
his  wife.  In  the  summer  of  1863  he  felt  obliged 
to  take  her,  with  their  son  a  year  old,  to  Mich- 
igan and  JMinnesota  in  search  of  such  benefit 
as  a  change  of  climate  might  yield,  and  in  Sep- 
tember to  resign  his  parish  in  Chestnut  Hill. 
From  Minnesota,  where  the  effects  of  the  Mas- 
sacre of  1862  were  still  conspicuous,  he  wrote  a 
letter  to  the  Sunday-school  pupils  at  home  which 
may  be  read,  almost  in  its  entirety,  as  the  record 
of  his  awakening  to  the  cause  to  which  so 
many  of  the  best  years  of  his  life  were  to  be 
given : 


IN  PARISH  AND  MISSIONS  OFFICE       15 

"St.  Paul,  Minn.,  September  13,  1863. 
"My  Dear  Young  Friends: 

"You  remember  that  when  I  was  with  you, 
I  used  to  talk  to  you  often  of  different  objects 
to  which  I  wished  you  to  make  offerings.  I  have 
not  forgotten  you  nor  your  monthly  collections 
since  I  have  been  away,  and  I  now  write  because 
I  want  to  interest  you  in  the  poor  Indians  of 
whom  I  have  lately  seen  a  good  deal.  There  is 
a  war  raging  in  this  state  against  them  so  that 
now  we  never  see  them,  but  when  I  was  in  JNIar- 
quette  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Superior  I  saw  num- 
bers of  them  every  day — sometimes  they  were 
lounging  about  the  streets,  sometimes  picking 
berries  in  the  woods  and  at  other  times  paddling 
their  canoes  along  the  shore  of  the  lake.  But  no 
one  seemed  to  take  any  interest  in  them.  .  .  . 
They  wandered  about  like  sheep  without  a  shep- 
herd. But  though  no  one  taught  them  what 
was  good,  there  were  not  wanting  those  who 
taught  them  what  was  evil. 

"As  I  sat  in  my  room  on  the  Fourth  of  July 
I  heard  an  unusual  noise  and  on  looking  out  of 
my  window  I  found  that  some  of  the  white  peo- 
ple had  got  about  a  dozen  Indians  together  to 
make  the  day  hideous  with  their  savage  exhibi- 
tion. There  they  stood  before  the  hotel  almost 
naked,  and  so  bedaubed  with  paint  and  set  off 
with  feathers  that  they  were  frightful  to  look 


16     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

upon.  At  a  given  signal  they  began  their  dance. 
They  pounded  the  earth  with  their  feet,  they 
crouched  to  the  ground,  they  leaped,  and  sang 
and  whooped  and  yelled,  occasionally  firing  their 
guns  into  the  air,  until  I  was  sickened  at  the 
indecent  sight.  Thus,  my  dear  children,  I  have 
seen  white  people,  your  and  my  brethren,  teach 
the  Indian  evil  and  make  them  almost  like  that 
man  possessed  with  the  devil,  mentioned  in  the 
Gospel,  who  roamed  among  the  mountains  cry- 
ing and  cutting  himself  with  stones.     .     .     . 

"A  young  man  in  Connecticut  some  years  ago 
who  was  studying  for  the  ministry  felt  himself 
called  to  go  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  the 
Indians.  He  accordingly  came  out  to  Minne- 
sota, and  began  a  mission  under  the  care  of 
Bishop  Whipple.  For  a  year  he  went  in  and 
out  among  them  teaching  and  preaching  the 
Gospel,  but  he  met  with  little  success  so  far  as 
he  could  see.  But  a  single  Indian  was  baptized 
during  the  whole  time.  Soon  after,  however,  it 
appeared  as  if  their  eyes  were  being  opened  to 
see  the  kindness  and  love  of  the  Saviour  and 
many  became  interested  in  the  Gospel.  Another 
and  another  was  added  to  the  number;  they  were 
baptized,  and  so  there  came  to  be  quite  a  Chris- 
tian community  among  the  heathen  Indians. 
Many  persons  contributed  to  build  them  a  church, 
and   it  was   nearly   finished   when   the   savage 


IN  PARISH  AND  MISSIONS  OFFICE       17 

Indians  made  an  attack  on  the  whites,  murder- 
ing or  taking  prisoners  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren. Not  one  of  the  Christian  Indians  joined 
in  these  outrages.  On  the  contrary  they  warned 
the  missionary  and  his  teachers,  they  hid  the 
church  Bible  from  the  savages,  and  on  succeed- 
ing in  getting  some  of  the  white  prisoners  away 
from  their  captors,  they  sent  them  in  safety  to 
General  Sibley,  who  was  coming  at  the  head  of 
an  expedition  to  punish  those  who  had  committed 
the  outrages.  Thus  they  proved  themselves 
Christians  indeed.  But  the  government  passed 
a  law  that  all  the  Indians  of  the  tribe  should  be 
sent  away  from  the  state  and  so  the  Christian 
friendly  Indians,  though  they  had  done  all  they 
could  to  help  the  whites,  were  brought  to  Fort 
Snelling  and  were  there  tried  to  find  whether 
they  had  joined  in  the  massacre.  If  they  had 
been  found  guilty  they  would  have  been  hanged, 
but  they  were  all  pronounced  innocent,  and  sent 
hundreds  of  miles  away  from  their  homes  to  a 
place  they  had  never  seen  before  on  the  Upper 
Missouri. 

"But  God  meant  that  the  white  man's  cruelty 
should  turn  out  for  the  Indian's  eternal  good, 
and  so,  having  no  one  else  to  flee  to  in  their 
misery,  they  fled  to  Christ.  While  at  Fort 
Snelhng  nearly  a  hundred  Indians  were  bap- 
tized, and  when  I  met  the  missionary  the  other 


18     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

day  he  told  me  that  now  after  the  expiration  of 
some  six  months  he  has  every  reason  to  trust  in 
their  sincerity  and  single-minded  piety.  He  also 
told  me  how  God  had  accomplished  this  wonder- 
ful work.  You  know  the  Indians  place  great 
confidence  in  their  medicine  men,  as  they  are 
called.  They  are  jugglers  who  pretend  to  cure 
diseases,  to  keep  people  well  or  make  them  sick 
and  all  that  sort  of  thing.  Well,  as  long  as  they 
refused  the  Gospel  the  others  would  not  receive 
it.  At  last,  however,  four  of  the  medicine  men 
were  converted  and  the  missionary  called  a  coun- 
cil of  the  Indians.  Some  three  hundred  came 
together.  The  missionary  called  upon  one  of 
the  four  medicine  men  to  say  whatever  he  had  to 
say.  He  looked  confused,  and  so  the  mission- 
ary told  them  that  when  white  men  held  a  council 
not  only  the  men  who  called  the  council  but 
others  expressed  their  opinions.  He  said  this 
council  was  called  to  consider  Christianity  and 
he  wanted  to  know  what  the  medicine  man  had 
to  say  on  the  subject.  He  now  understood  what 
was  meant  and  said  that  he  had  believed  in  four 
religions  in  his  life.  He  described  them  all  and 
said  none  of  them  satisfied  him.  They  all  were 
false.  The  last  religion  he  had  had  was  the 
Grand  Medicine  and  he  knew  that  was  all  a  lie, 
and,  turning  around  to  the  medicine  men  who 
were  present,  he  said  they  knew  it  too.     He  then 


IN  PARISH  AND  MISSIONS  OFFICE       19 

proclaimed  himself  a  Christian  and  brought  his 
drmns  and  feathers  and  the  other  things  he  had 
formerly  used  when  he  was  a  juggler  and  laid 
them  at  the  missionary's  feet. 

"The  rest  of  the  Indians  were  very  much 
impressed  when  they  saw  their  medicine  men 
owning  that  their  religion  was  all  a  cheat  and 
soon  many  of  them  became  Christians  too.  They 
have  now  all  gone  to  their  new  home.  Their 
missionary  has  gone  with  them.  They  have  the 
New  Testament  and  a  large  part  of  the  Prayer- 
Book  in  the  Dakota  language  and  every  Sunday, 
if  you  were  there,  you  would  hear  them  saying 
the  same  prayers  and  creed  and  singing  the  same 
chants  as  you  say  and  sing  at  St.  Paul's,  Chest- 
nut Hill,  only  in  the  Indian  language.  They 
now  call  upon  you,  my  dear  boys  and  girls,  for 
help.     .     .     . 

"Most  affectionately  your  friend  and  pastor, 
"William  H.  Hare." 

These  very  Indians,  sent  from  Minnesota  to 
Fort  Snelling,  and  thence  to  a  place  they  had 
never  seen  before  on  the  Missouri,  formed  the 
nucleus  of  Bishop  Hare's  own  Niobrara  mission 
ten  j^ears  later.  Their  plight,  as  he  first  saw  it, 
made  a  powerful  appeal  to  his  sympathies.  A 
few  weeks  after  writing  the  letter  just  cited,  he 
recurred  to  the  subject  in  a  letter  to  Miss  Biddle: 


20     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

"The  Church  outside  Minnesota  must  do  the 
work.  The  indifference  of  the  people  here  to 
the  eternal  interests  of  the  Indian  is  simply 
astounding.  They  are  concerned  in  only  one 
thing,  their  extermination.  There  is  a  reward 
paid  by  the  authorities  for  every  Sioux  killed  by 
private  individuals.  I  saw  by  the  paper  yester- 
day that  the  reward  has  just  been  raised  to  $200 
to  stimulate  greater  activity  in  tliis  humane 
enterprise!" 

It  does  not  seem  unduly  fanciful  to  associate 
the  depth  of  the  impression  made  by  these  first 
observations  of  the  treatment  of  Indians  by 
w^liites  with  the  more  personal  experience  through 
which  Mr.  Hare  was  then  passing.  His  wife's 
health  remained  such  that  he  must  have  felt  her 
hold  upon  life  to  be  increasingly  uncertain.  The 
wrongs  they  saw  together  must  have  been  the 
more  repugnant  to  him  for  their  very  effect  upon 
her.  Their  effects  upon  him,  in  all  the  circum- 
stances, could  hardly  have  been  other  than  per- 
manent. 

It  was  partly  that  Mrs.  Hare  might  change 
the  climate  and  conveniences  of  a  suburban  place 
for  those  of  the  city  that  he  resigned  his  parish 
in  Chestnut  Hill.  He  returned  to  St.  Luke's 
Church  in  Philadelphia,  taking  entire  charge  of 
it  for  a  time  during  his  father-in-law's  absence, 
and  in  1864  assumed  special  care  of  the  Church 


IN  PARISH  AND  MISSIONS  OFFICE       21 

of  the  Ascension,  a  mission  of  St.  Luke's.  When 
this  mission  became  an  independent  parish  in 
1867,  he  was  chosen  its  rector. 

Before  this  responsibihty  came  to  him  he  had 
been  left  to  face  all  responsibilities  alone.  On 
January  7,  1866,  the  pulmonary  disease  which 
for  several  years  had  threatened  Mrs.  Hare's 
life  brought  it  to  an  end.  Yet  he  was  not  alone. 
His  son  of  three  years — ^now  the  well-known 
medical  writer,  teacher  and  practitioner.  Dr. 
Hobart  Amory  Hare  of  Philadelphia — remained 
to  him;  and,  to  share  the  management  of  his 
little  household,  his  sister.  Miss  Mary  H.  Hare, 
came  inunediately  to  his  side  and  remained  there 
until  he  took  up  the  work  of  a  Missionary  Bishop. 
Nor  in  the  more  intimate  sense  could  he  have 
been  so  much  alone  as  the  death  of  his  wife 
seemed  to  leave  him.  Her  life,  especially  as 
its  end  drew  near,  was  so  preponderantly  a  life 
of  the  spirit,  that  it  could  continue  in  vital  rela- 
tions with  his  own  spiritual  existence.  And  so  it 
did  continue — if  one  may  put  a  reasonable  inter- 
pretation upon  obvious  causes  and  effects — not 
only  through  the  dark  days  of  readjustment,  but 
far  into  the  years  through  which  he  shaped  and 
followed  the  course  he  must  have  known  she 
would  have  him  take.  '^Sit  anima  mea  cum  ilia" 
he  wrote  in  his  wife's  Bible,  opposite  the  record 
of  her  death ;  "quis  non  desideret  illain  civitatern 


22     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

unde  amicus  non  eooit,  quo  inimicus  non  intrat?'* 
The  course  he  took  remained  at  first  in  the 
grooves  of  a  city  parish.  In  the  summer  of 
1868  he  sought  relief  from  it  in  a  few  months 
of  foreign  travel,  through  which  we  may  not 
follow  him.  A  single  passage  from  a  letter, 
written  in  Switzerland,  to  a  brother-in-law  also 
traveling  in  Europe,  tells  something  of  his  need 
for  rest  and  of  the  discretion  with  which  even 
his  pleasures  had  to  be  taken:  "Pray  remember 
that  in  your  case  and  mine,  health  and  not  sight- 
seeing is  of  first  importance.  I  find  I  can  do 
very  little  of  the  latter  without  prejudice  to  my 
health.  I  lie  awake  at  night  thinking  in  a  sort 
of  ecstasy  of  what  I  have  seen,  and  find  it  nec- 
essary to  sandwich  a  week  of  seclusion  between 
my  spells  of  sight-seeing.  Pray  be  wise  and  do 
the  like." 

Returning  to  Philadelphia  he  continued  for 
about  two  years  in  the  routine  of  parish  work, 
when  he  was  appointed  Secretary  and  General 
Agent  of  the  Foreign  Committee  of  the  Board 
of  Missions.  His  Philadelphia  parishioners 
were  loath  to  part  with  him.  Bishop  Stevens, 
in  a  letter  of  a  later  day,  wrote:  "During  the 
whole  of  his  ministry  in  Philadelphia,  it  was 
under  my  eye  continually,  and  I  can  bear  solemn 
testimony  before  God  to  its  marked  success  and 
usefulness."     But  the  call  to  the  Missions  Office 


IN  PARISH  AND  MISSIONS  OFFICE       23 

in  New  York  was  a  call  to  larger  service  and 
offered  also  the  entire  change  of  climate  and 
mode  of  life  which  physicians  had  already  coun- 
seled him  to  seek.  In  the  winter  of  1871  his 
new  work  began.  The  duties  of  the  position 
were  those  of  an  intermediary  between  the  church 
at  home  and  its  representatives  in  the  foreign 
fields  of  missionary  work.  It  was  necessary  both 
to  make  known  their  deeds  and  needs  through 
frequent  speaking  and  writing,  and,  through  cor- 
respondence with  them,  to  give  them  that  stim- 
ulus which  the  knowledge  of  sympathy  and 
support  could  afford.  In  the  performance  of 
his  duties  a  native  gift  of  persuasive  and  telling 
speech  received  constant  cultivation.  At  the 
same  time  his  power  to  stimulate  generosity  on 
the  part  of  the  supporters  of  missions  won  him 
an  enviable  name  for  efficiency  in  an  important 
branch  of  the  work  before  him.  One  innovation 
in  the  daily  work  of  the  missions  office  was  intro- 
duced under  his  regime — the  pause  at  noon  for 
the  "Midday  Prayer  for  Missions,"  a  practice 
which  has  since  spread  far  and  wide.  For  him- 
self there  could  hardly  have  been  a  better  school 
than  in  his  new  employment  for  the  all-round 
development  of  the  missionary  spirit.  "So  there 
seemed,"  said  Bishop  Tuttle  in  a  memorial  ser- 
mon at  Sioux  Falls  in  1910,  "in  the  early  days 
a  holy;  christening  of  him  to  his  special  work. 


<e4<     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

Ntamc  this  person,  might  have  been  asked  of  his 
sponsors  then;  and  you  could  have  almost  heard 
the  answer  clear  and  unhesitating, — A  Mission- 
ary Bishop." 

The  personal  records  of  this  period  are  scanty. 
A  letter  from  Mr.  Hare,  while  traveling  with 
a  party  of  prominent  representatives  of  the 
clergy  and  laity,  sent  as  delegates  to  a  missionary 
meeting  in  San  Francisco,  will  serve,  however, 
to  give  its  impression  both  of  the  writer  and  of 
his  glimpse  at  Mormon  conditions  in  1871: 

[To  Miss  Mary  H.  Hare.] 

"About  550  Miles  East  of  San  Francisco, 

"April  26,  1871. 
"My  Dear  Mary: 

"I  have  written  three  letters  (to  dignify  them 
by  that  name)  since  I  have  been  on  the  cars,  two 
to  Mother  and  one  to  my  dear  boy. 

"It  is  marvelous  how  accustomed  one  becomes 
to  life  on  a  railway.  I  have  hardly  known  what 
ennui  is  and  have  slept  almost  as  well  as  at  home. 
So  say  the  rest  of  the  party.  But  I  dread  the 
return,  for  the  noveltj-^  will  have  passed  away, 
and  I  fear  that  none  of  the  party  will  return  in 
time  to  accompany  me. 

"The  weather  has  been  charming.  They  have 
no  rain  here  for  several  months  and  our  umbrellas 
are  altogether  useless   baggage.     We   reached 


IN  PARISH  AND  MISSIONS  OFFICE       25 

Salt  I^ake  City  on  Saturday  evening  at  about 
nine  o'clock. 

"The  journey  until  Saturday  afternoon  was 
entirely  uninteresting.  Though  we  had  ascended 
the  Rocky  Mountains  we  had  seen  nothing  but 
barren  desolate  plateaus  and  all  that  was  moun- 
tainous in  appearance  was  far  in  the  distance. 
But  as  we  descended  towards  the  Salt  Lake 
Valley  the  land  became  more  precipitous,  and 
the  scenery  very  imposing. 

"The  Salt  Lake  Valley  is  most  charming.  On 
each  side  is  a  range  of  mountains  covered  with 
snow  rising  up  right  out  of  the  plain  to  a  height 
of  seven  thousand  feet.  The  great  Salt  Lake 
lies  in  the  midst  of  the  Valley.  It  is  ninety  miles 
long  by  tliirty  to  forty  wide.  Out  of  it  rises  a 
long  ridge  of  mountain.  The  snow-covered 
mountains,  the  water,  and  the  highly  cultivated 
plain  make  a  scene  of  charming  beauty. 

"Our  visit  to  Salt  Lake  City  was  full  of  intense 
interest.  The  Mormons  showed  on  all  hands  a 
great  desire  to  show  us  what  is  to  be  seen.  They 
have  certainly  done  wonders  here.  This  Valley 
was  a  desert  from  want  of  water.  They  have 
divided  the  stream  from  the  mountains  into  a 
thousand  rills  and  introduced  a  perfect  system 
of  irrigation.  The  desert  has  been  converted 
into  a  garden. 

"They  are  a  most  thrifty  and  industrious  peo- 


26     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

pie.  Indeed  they  teach  that  labor  is  religion. 
They  have  organized  their  Society  so  thoroughly 
and  they  have  been  so  shut  out  from  the  world 
until  lately  and  so  compacted  together  by  a  com- 
mon faith  and  absolute  submission  to  their  leader, 
whom  they  believe  to  be  inspired,  that  the  com- 
munity is  more  like  a  school  than  a  city. 

"Their  religious  system  is  Christianity,  grossly 
understood,  for  they  are  a  gross,  ignorant  peo- 
ple; and  they  maintain  that  Revelation  is  con- 
tinued among  them  and  that  they  can  add  what 
they  like. 

"They  have  in  this  way  introduced  polygamy, 
and  this  foul  blot  produces  a  sense  of  disgust 
even  in  the  midst  of  the  delights  of  their  charm- 
ing abode. 

"We  attended  their  services  at  noon  on  Sun- 
day, and  desired  to  do  so  as  unnoticed  as  pos- 
sible; but  they  were  on  the  look-out  for  us  and 
as  the  party  appeared  at  the  door  in  squads  they 
were  singled  out  from  the  crowd  who  were  wait- 
ing to  get  seats  and  assigned  seats  in  a  place  that 
had  been  reserved.  There  must  have  been 
twenty-five  hundred  people  present.  Brigham 
Young  and  his  counselors  were  seated  on  a  plat- 
form, some  of  them  engaged  in  breaking  bread 
into  large  silver  baskets,  like  a  good-sized  cake 
basket.     This  we  found  was  for  the  Sacrament. 

"The  first  address  was  by  the  celebrated  apostle 


IN  PARISH  AND  MISSIONS  OFFICE       27 

of  the  INIormons,  Orson  Pratt.  He  has  a  great 
reputation.  His  sermon  was  an  apology  for 
their  religion,  but  not  very  conclusive.  He  was 
followed  by  George  A.  Smith,  a  very  promi- 
nent dignitary,  who  took  the  ninth  commandment 
for  his  text  and  pleaded  that  the  Gentiles  pres- 
ent would  not  tell  lies  about  them  when  they  went 
to  their  homes. 

"To    our    amazement,    the    Rev.    Mr.    

.  .  .  was  then  introduced.  He  is  an  Epis- 
copal clergyman,  one,  however,  to  whom  Bishop 
Alonzo  Potter  refused  orders  for  cause,  and 
whose  record  has  not  been  very  good.  ...  I 
was  mortified  to  see  him  get  up,  and  when  I  heard 
his  address,  which  was  altogether  in  the  INIormon 
vein  (though  he  made  no  allusion  to  polygamy) 
I  was  both  indignant  and  disgusted.  So  were 
all  the  party.  .  .  .  Brigham  Young  him- 
self closed  with  a  very  insinuating  address. 

"In  the  midst  of  the  proceedings  the  bread 
was  consecrated  and  then  the  water  (which  they 
use  instead  of  wine)  and  handed  about  through 
the  audience.  A  Mormon  behind  me  told  me 
that  I  might  partake,  but  I  preferred  to  refrain. 
There  was  something  revolting  in  the  mixing  up 
words  and  phrases  and  acts  we  prize  with  follies. 

"The  sight  of  the  congregation  was  one  not 
easily  forgotten.  It  was  a  larger  audience  than 
I  had  ever  beheld.     There  was  not  one  cultivated, 


S8     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

refined  face  to  be  seen.  The  women  were  the 
most  unattractive,  vulgar  and  dull-loolving  I  ever 
saw.  And  througliout  the  whole  proceeding 
there  was  not  the  least  appearance  of  devotion. 
The  audience  throughout  wore  the  air  of  a  gath- 
ering waiting  for  a  concert  to  begin. 

"I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  there  is  no  devotion 
among  them.  Everything  leads  me  to  think  that 
many  of  them,  though  deluded,  are  thoroughly 
earnest. 

"On  Sunday  the  delegation  was  called  upon 
by  two  of  the  apostles,  George  A.  Smith  and 
another;  and  it  was  represented  that  the  call 
was  on  behalf  of  Young,  for  whom  it  is  not  eti- 
quette to  call  in  person.  None  of  the  party  were 
at  the  hotel.  The  next  day  two  or  three  of  the 
laymen  returned  the  call,  but  for  some  reason 
or  other  Brigham,  who  is  generally  very  affable, 
was  taciturn  and  reserved.  Perhaps  it  was  that 
a  reporter  of  the  Herald  got  in  with  the  party. 
Perhaps  he  thought  that  he  w^as  slighted  by  the 
clergy  absenting  themselves.  The  landlord,  a 
Mormon,  who  guided  the  party,  was  very  much 
provoked  that  the  President  did  not  show  to 
greater  advantage  and  swore  not  a  little  on 
coming  out."     .     .     . 

It  was  in  the  year  following  the  missionary 
journey  to  San  Fi*ancisco  that  the  House  of 


IN  PARISH  AND  MISSIONS  OFFICE       29 

Bishops,  brought  especially  by  the  vigorous  and 
unselfish  efforts  of  INIr.  William  AVelsh  of  Phila- 
delphia to  recognize  the  needs  of  the  Indians 
and  to  consider  the  wisdom  of  sending  a  Bishop 
into  their  country,  created  the  Missionary  Juris- 
diction of  Niobrara  and  elected  Mr.  Hare  its 
Bishop.  Their  course  in  this  matter  and  the 
bearing  of  it  upon  his  personal  fortunes  are  set 
forth  so  clearly  by  Bishop  Hare  himself  in  the 
"Reminiscences"  which  he  delivered  as  an 
Address  on  the  fifteenth  anniversary  of  his  con- 
secration that  it  is  best  to  give  the  facts  in  his 
own  words: 

"On  All  Saints'  Day  (November  1),  1872, 
I  was  waited  upon  by  two  members  of  the  Com- 
mission then  charged  with  the  care  of  the  Indian 
Mission  work  of  our  Church,  and  informed  that 
the  House  of  Bishops  had  elected  me  to  be  Mis- 
sionary Bishop  of  Niobrara. 

"Niobrara  was  the  name  of  a  river  running 
along  the  border  line  between  Nebraska  and 
Dakota,  and  had  been  chosen  as  a  convenient 
term  in  ecclesiastical  nomenclature  for  the  large 
tract  of  country  of  which  then  little  was  known, 
save  that  it  stretched  northward  from  the  river 
Niobrara,  and  was  roamed  over  by  the  Poncas 
and  different  tribes  of  Sioux  or  Dakota  Indians. 

"The  jurisdiction  proper  of  the  Missionary 


30     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

Bishop  of  Niobrara  was  originally  a  tract  of 
country  bounded  'on  the  east  by  the  Missouri 
River;  on  the  south  by  the  State  of  Nebraska; 
on  the  west  by  the  104th  meridian,  the  Territory 
of  Wyoming,  and  Nebraska;  on  the  north  by 
the  46th  degree  of  north  latitude ;  including  also 
the  several  Indian  Reservations  on  the  left  bank 
of  the  Missouri,  north  and  east  of  said  river.' 
In  order,  however,  to  give  unity  and  compactness 
to  the  effort  of  the  Church  for  the  Indian  tribes, 
the  IMissionary  Bishop  of  Niobrara  was  also 
authorized  to  take  charge  of  such  missionary 
work  among  Indians  east  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains as  might  be  transferred  to  his  oversight 
bj^  the  Bishops  within  whose  jurisdiction  such 
work  might  lie. 

"The  news  of  my  election  was  utterly  unex- 
pected, and  fell  upon  me  like  a  thunderbolt  from 
a  clear  sky.  The  honor  was  almost  too  much 
for  my  small  stock  of  virtue.  I  w^as  at  the  time 
Secretary  and  General  Agent  of  the  Foreign 
Mission  Work  of  this  Church,  and  deeply  im- 
mersed, body,  mind  and  heart,  in  the  work  of 
making  known  the  Gospel  among  the  heathen  in 
distant  lands.  I  had  but  a  year  before  been 
elected  by  the  House  of  Bishops  to  the  Mission- 
ary Episcopate  of  Cape  Palmas  and  parts  adja- 
cent in  Africa,  but  this  action  of  the  Bishops  had 
not  been  allowed  to  come  before  me.     The  House 


IN  PARISH  AND  MISSIONS  OFFICE       31 

of  Deputies,  in  language  complimentary^  to  me, 
which  I  may  not  quote,  represented  to  the  House 
of  Bishops,  that  injury  would  be  done  to  the 
Foreign  Missionary  Work  of  the  Church  bj^  my 
withdrawal  from  the  office  of  Foreign  Secretary, 
and  the  House  of  Bishops  reconsidered  their 
appointment.  (See  Journal  of  General  Con- 
vention, 1871,  pp.  227-228.) 

"I  fell  into  the  habit  of  considering  that  this 
action  virtually  determined  that  my  vocation 
should  be  for  many  years  that  of  Secretary  and 
General  Agent  for  the  Foreign  Work.  My 
sense  of  the  practical  worth  of  that  enterprise 
had  strengthened  every  month  I  was  connected 
with  it;  and  my  conviction  deepened  that  that 
department  of  the  Church's  enterprises  can  never 
be  either  relinquished  or  disparaged  so  long  as 
'neighbor'  means  any  one  near  or  far  off  to  whom 
we  may  do  good,  nor  so  long  as  the  Church 
believes  that  her  creation  and  her  mission  are 
not  of  man,  but  of  God,  and  that  her  resources 
are  not  merely  an  aggregate  of  human  agencies 
nor  an  aggregate  of  money  collections  only,  but 
'the  powers  of  the  world  to  come.'  My  heart 
had  become  knit  in,  too,  with  the  brave  standard- 
bearers  of  the  Church  in  heathen  lands,  and  tears 
filled  my  eyes  as  I  thought  of  even  seeming  to 
desert  the  army  in  the  field,  and  leave  it  uncer- 
tain about  its  base  of  supplies.     Moreover,   a 


32     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

domestic  tie  of  tender  sacrediiess  bound  me  to 
my  home. 

"My  first  thought  was  to  decline;  and  I 
informed  my  visitors  that  it  would  take  me  but 
a  few  hours  to  decide,  and  if  the  House  of  Bish- 
ops would  remain  in  session,  they  should  have 
my  answer  without  delay.  But  the  House  had 
done  its  duty  and  adjourned,  and  left  me  to 
decide  what  was  mine.  The  call  was  most  sol- 
emn. It  was  from  an  authority  that  was  next 
to  that  of  the  Head  of  the  Church  Himself.  It 
came  to  one  who  held  the  opinion  that  the  oppo- 
sition of  the  individual  judgment  and  will  to  the 
summons  of  the  Church  is  almost  fatal  to  her 
prompt  and  efficient  conduct  of  her  missionary 
campaign,  and  should  never  be  ventured  except 
for  reasons  of  paramount  importance. 

"As  I  afterward  came  to  see,  I  had  been  led 
through  a  course  of  preparation  for  such  a  sum- 
mons. Though  born  and  bred  at  the  East,  I 
had  spent  six  months  in  ]\lichigan  and  Minne- 
sota, in  1863,  and  there  seen  something  of  the 
Indian  problem.  ...  I  had  returned  to 
the  East  the  Indian's  advocate,  and  ...  I 
had  become  convinced  of  this:  that  the  Indian's 
claim  upon  the  Church  of  Christ  was  most 
sacred.     .     .     . 

"The  issue  of  all  my  cogitating  was — I 
accepted  the  appointment." 


IN  PARISH  AND  MISSIONS  OFFICE       33 

Quite  different  from  this  cool  account  of  the 
"cogitating,"  written  fifteen  j^ears  after  its  end 
was  attained,  are  the  two  following  letters  to  a 
trusted  friend  and  the  "Considerations"  sent  to 
her  with  the  second  letter.  They  add  to  the 
"Reminiscences"  a  vivid  sense  of  the  struggle 
which  the  decision  cost,  and  of  the  motives  that 
brought  it  to  pass. 

[To  Miss  E.  N.  Biddle.] 

"Oeange,  N.  J.,  November  3,  1872. 
"My  Bear  Friend: 

"I  must  acknowledge  your  telegram  if  only 
in  a  few  lines. 

"I  am  undergoing  mentally  the  agony  which 
many  an  early  disciple  was  called  upon  to  endure 
in  his  body  while  the  two  chariots  to  which  he 
was  fastened  were  driven  violently  in  different 
directions  and  he  was  torn  limb  from  limb.  My 
conviction  of  duty  to  the  Avork  in  which  I  have 
been  engaged  has  been  supreme.  It  now  binds 
me  to  it  with  a  band  of  iron.  JNIy  conviction  that 
when  a  man  is  called  to  be  himself  a  wanderer 
like  His  Master  that  he  may  the  better  bring 
the  wanderers  home,  he  cannot  easily  refuse,  is 
gaining  strength  every  hour.  Behold  then  with 
what  conflicting  emotions  I  am  torn.  'O  my 
God,  I  am  but  a  child.  I  know  not  how  to  go 
out  or  how  to  come  in!'     Unable  to  guide  my 


34     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

boat,  not  able  to  see  the  way,  I  feel  that  if  ever 
the  little  boat  is  to  reach  port  it  must  be  by  the 
breathing  of  the  prayers  of  my  friends.  These 
I  want.  If  you  see  any  that  love  me,  tell  them 
so. 

"With  love  to  all  your  circle, 

"Very  affectionately  j^ours, 

"W.  H.  Hare." 

[To  Miss  E.  N.  Biddle.] 

"Obange,  N.  J.,  November  14,  1872. 
"My  Very  Dear  Friend: 

"Let  me  show  my  sense  of  your  loving  interest 
by  writing  to  you  among  the  very  first  to  say 
in  confidence  that  my  present  decision  (alto- 
gether as  yet  an  internal  and  private  one)  is  to 
be  the  Church's  servant  in  the  Indian  work.  I 
send  you  a  paper  in  which  you  will  find  the  steps 
by  which  I  climbed  my  way  over  the  arguments 
urged  against  such  a  course.  The  last  half  page 
was  copied  by  mistake.  I  wrote  those  lines  at 
a  time  when  the  harder  side  of  the  new  life  was 
impressing  me,  and  to  an  eye  other  than  my  own 
they  will  seem  rather  intense.  Overlook  that. 
I  should  like  Mrs.  V.  (to  whom  much  love)  and 
Mr.  Welsh  to  see  the  paper,  no  one  else. 

"Gratefully  and  affectionately  yours, 

"William  H.  Hare." 


IN  PARISH  AND  MISSIONS  OFFICE       35 

"considerations. 

"That  these  Indians  are  heathen  men; 

"That  they  are  heathen  whom  God  has  placed 
right  at  our  doors,  who  are  our  wards,  and  whose 
claims  rank  therefore  first; 

"That  they  are  heathen  men  to  whom  we  owe 
a  debt  altogether  peculiar,  because,  though  they 
are  our  wards,  we  have  wronged  them  more  than 
we  have  wronged  any  other  people  on  the  face 
of  the  earth; 

"That  it  would  be  quixotic  to  work  for  heathen 
far  off,  unless  we  are  grappling  also  with  the 
heathen  question  at  home; 

"That  earnest  effort,  in  faith,  for  these  heathen 
in  particular  may  give  a  favorable  solution  to 
the  question  w^hether  the  Gospel  can  benefit  the 
heathen  in  general,  and  thus  help  all  Missionary 
effort  for  heathen  men; 

"That,  while  it  is  true  that  the  heathen  at  home 
are  comparatively  few  and  the  heathen  abroad 
many,  it  is  also  true  that  the  responsibihty  of 
enhghtening  the  former  rests  upon  the  American 
Christian  alone,  while  the  responsibility  in  the 
other  case  is  divided  up  among  all  the  Christians 
in  the  world; 

"That  I  am  called  not  merely  to  minister  as 
a  Bishop  to  this  despoiled  race,  but  to  head,  so 
far  as  the  Episcopal  Church  is  concerned,  what 


36     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

is  coming  to  be  a  great  national  movement  in 
their  behalf,  and  to  do  what  I  can  to  commit 
the  Church  to  it  for  life  and  for  death.  The 
Government,  when  making  a  noble  Christian 
effort  which  the  world  despises,  has  a  right  to  all 
that  the  Church  can  give; 

"That  I  am  reputed  to  have  been  successful, 
under  God,  in  an  office  of  administration;  and 
while,  in  one  view,  this  fact  is  a  reason  for  staying 
in  it,  it  is  also  an  argument  on  the  other  side. 
The  Indian  work  cannot  aiford  to  take  one  with 
the  reputation  of  being  an  W7?successful  man; 

"That  it  is  an  easier  tiling  to  find  a  Secretary 
than  a  Bishop,  because  a  Bishop  (especially  one 
for  this  new  enterprise)  needs  all  the  qualities 
which  a  Secretary  needs,  and,  besides  those  quali- 
ties, the  qualities  which  fit  a  man  to  be  a  Bishop; 

"That  I  have  received  orders  and  cannot  dis- 
obey them  unless  they  are  against  my  conscience 
or  manifestly  absurd; 

"That  I  have  been  spared  once  (when  elected 
to  Africa)  and  ought  not  to  ask  to  be  spared 
again ; 

"That  a  man  who  seems  to  shrink  from  hard 
places  weakens  men's  faith  in  the  reality  of 
Christian  character; 

"That  God  has  made  my  heart  always  tender 
towards  the  Indian  work,  and  now  has  led  me, 
through  much  perplexity  and  distress,  to  be  will- 


IN  PARISH  AND  MISSIONS  OFFICE       37 

ing-  to  be  a  wanderer,  and  an  outcast  if  need  be, 
if  only  I  may  do  a  little  toward  bringing  these 
poor  wanderers  and  outcasts  to  a  home ;  ^ 

"That,  after  much  prayer,  I  am  inclined  in 
my  soul  to  undertake  this  work." 

Even  before  he  reached  his  decision  fault  was 
found  with  the  House  of  Bishops  for  calling 
upon  Mr.  Hare  to  leave  his  post  in  New  York. 
It  is  said  that  one  man  exclaimed  when  leaving 
the  meeting"  w^here  the  nomination  was  made: 
"This  is  the  mistake  which  the  Church  is  always 
making!  She  sets  her  finest  men  to  her  com- 
monest work.  She  is  continually  using  a  razor 
to  split  kindling!"  The  complaint  is  famihar  in 
many  departments  of  life — and  many  delicate 
instruments  go  on  achieving  things  both  great 
and  fine.  If  the  Church  was  blamed,  the  Bishop- 
elect  was  not.  "Honors  come  thick,"  he  wi'ote 
in  December  to  a  member  of  his  family; 
"  'S.  T.  D.'  of  Columbia  and  'D.D.'  of  Trinity. 
Bobs  enough  to  this  kite!"  The  "Reminiscences" 
go  on  with  the  stoiy: 

"The  presiding  Bishop  determined  upon 
Thursday  after  the  Feast  of  the  Epiphany,  Jan- 
uary 9,  1873,  as  the  time,  and  St.  Luke's 
Church,  Philadelphia,  with  which  I  had  been  inti- 
mately connected  in  my  early  ministry,  as  the 

1  It  is  this  paragraph,  scratched  out  in  the  manuscript,  which 
Miss  Biddle  was  asked  to  overlook  because  of  its  intensity. 


38     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

place  for  my  consecration,  and  I  was  then  and 
there  duly  consecrated. 

"A  number  of  circumstances  combined  to  add 
to  the  interest  of  the  occasion.  I  was  only 
thirty-four  years  of  age ;  only  one  of  the  Bishops 
of  our  Church  had  been  consecrated  when  so 
young".  When  consecrated,  I  made  the  one  hun- 
dredth Bishop  in  the  line  of  the  American  Epis- 
copate. The  Bishop  consecrated  next  before  me 
was  my  father-in-law,  a  man  of  twice  my  age. 
My  grandfather,  Bishop  Hobart,  of  New  York, 
had  been  distinguished  for  his  Missionary  efforts 
in  behalf  of  the  Indians — the  Oneidas  and  other 
tribes  of  the  Six  Nations — in  New  York,  and 
these  Oneidas  had  been  removed  to  Wisconsin, 
and  were  to  be  placed  under  the  care  of  his  grand- 
son." 

To  these  circumstances  contributing  to  the 
interest  of  the  service  might  be  added  the  facts 
that  his  father,  his  brother,  his  uncle,  his  father- 
in-law,  his  father-in-law's  uncle,  Benjamin  Bos- 
worth  Smith,  then  Presiding  Bishop,  his  inti- 
mate friends,  William  R.  Huntington  and 
Henry  C.  Potter — were  all  among  those  who  took 
part  in  it.  Bishop  Whipple  of  JNIinnesota 
preached  the  sermon.  "The  office  committed 
unto  you,"  he  said,  "is  to  be  the  Apostle  of  the 
Indians.  .  .  .  They  will  perplex  you  daily 
with  their  sorrows,  and  they  will  weary  you  with 


IN  PARISH  AND  MISSIONS  OFFICE       39 

their  pleas  for  help.  Every  new  mission  planted, 
every  church  builded,  every  clergyman  ordained, 
will  bring  to  you  new  burdens  and  may  add  trials 
to  your  aching  heart.  You  may  grow  weaiy 
with  the  care  of  an  office  made  heavier  by  the 
wayward  wills,  the  restlessness  under  restraint 
and  the  individuality  of  those  whom  you  are  over 
in  the  Lord.  Words  of  disrespect  and  reproach 
may  wound  your  heart." 

With  intimations  of  still  more  poignant 
prophecy  Bishop  Whipple  continued: 

"I  know  not  what  trials  await  you.  The 
Church  which  is  now  so  keenly  alive  to  the  wants 
of  this  poor  people  may  grow  cold.  The  first 
fervor  of  Christian  converts  may  pass  away. 
Old  heathen  habits  may  reassert  their  power. 
You  may  even  have  to  say  to  some  of  your  flock 
as  St.  Paul  said  to  Christians  in  his  time,  'Lie 
not  to  one  another.  Let  him  that  stole  steal  no 
more.'  The  bad  men  of  the  border  may  excite 
savage  hearts  to  deeds  of  blood.  The  govern- 
ment may  again  forget  its  plighted  faith.  You 
may  have  to  stand  alone,  and  breast  the  anger 
of  the  people  in  defense  of  the  helpless.  In  the 
darkest  hour  look  up  to  Christ  your  King.  Bet- 
ter men  than  we  have  labored  and  died  without 
seeing  the  harvest.  Thus  Greenland  and  Ice- 
land were  won  to  Christ.  It  is  yours  to  work 
and   pray   and   die.     God   giveth   the   harvest. 


40     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

You  go  in  the  name  of  Christ.  You  bear  the 
seal  of  His  authority.  You  have  His  promise, 
'I  am  with  you  alway.'  " 

Thus  commissioned  and  charged,  he  went  forth 
to  his  labors. 


Ill 

A  PIONEER  IN  NIOBRARA 

1873-1878 

THE  conditions  of  life  about  to  confront  the 
young"  bishop  presented  the  sharpest  con- 
trast with  those  under  which  his  Hfe  so  far  had 
been  spent.  He  had  lived  only  in  the  two  lead- 
ing cities  of  the  country  and  their  immediate 
surroundings.  His  personal  background  had 
been  enriched  by  a  multitude  of  kinsmen  and 
friends  holding  definite  places  in  a  long-estab- 
lished social  order.  All  the  comfortable  ameni- 
ties of  hfe  in  the  Middle  States  in  the  decade 
beginning  with  the  Civil  War  had  been  his  by 
every  right  of  inheritance  and  possession.  Over 
against  all  this  was  to  be  set  a  frontier  existence 
of  the  roughest  sort.  The  permanent  settle- 
ment of  Dakota  Territory  had  begun  but  little 
before  1860.  The  territorial  government  was 
first  organized  in  1861,  but  even  in  1873  the 
population  of  wliites  was  scanty  and  scattered. 
Railroad  building  had  begun  only  in  1872,  and 
in    1873    had    been    carried    up    the    Missouri 

41 


43     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

River  only  so  far  as  Yankton.  The  buffalo 
were  virtually  gone — Bishop  Hare  confessed 
after  four  or  five  years  in  the  country  that  he 
never  saw  one — but  every  other  token  of  primi- 
tive conditions  remained.  The  Indian  popula- 
tion greatly  outnmnbered  the  white,  and  most  of 
the  Indians  were  unreclaimed  from  barbarism. 
The  work  of  the  pioneers  of  civilization  was  wait- 
ing, almost  in  its  entirety,  to  be  done. 

In  the  field  of  Indian  missions  the  Roman 
Catholics  had  already  done  something;  the  Con- 
gi'egationalists  and  Presbyterians,  especially 
through  the  labors  of  Riggs  and  Williamson  and 
the  attendant  translation  of  the  Bible  and  hymns 
into  the  Dakota  tongue,  had  more  specifically 
cleared  the  way.  The  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  was  represented  in  the  thriving  work  of 
the  Santee  mission  under  the  Rev.  S.  D.  Hinman, 
and  in  several  remote  posts.  Under  the  policy 
of  the  Grant  administration  the  Indian  agents 
were  appointed  on  the  recommendation  of  the 
religious  bodies  working  at  the  several  agencies. 
The  activities  and  influence  of  ]Mr.  William 
Welsh  were  such  that  the  Sioux  agencies  were 
filled  by  men  designated  by  representatives  of 
the  Episcopal  Church.  The  field  was  rough,  but 
it  was  full  of  opportunity  and  promise. 

Studying  the  field  from  the  East  soon  after 
his  consecration,  Bishop  Hare  wrote  to  a  clergy- 


A  PIONEER  IN  NIOBRARA  43 

man  preparing  to  join  his  staff  of  workers:  "I 
catch  just  enough  ghmpses,  not  to  condemn  or 
justify  any  one,  but  to  make  me  unhappy  and 
fearful  that  the  'Lover  of  concord'  will  not  make 
His  face  to  shine  upon  us."  Nothing  daunted 
he  made  ready  for  his  great  undertaking,  begged 
the  prayers  of  his  friends — "that  I  may  carry 
with  me  the  spiritual  strength  of  many  men,  not 
of  one  man  merely" — and  turned  his  face  west- 
ward early  in  April  of  1873. 

His  first  visitation  on  leaving  the  East  was  to 
the  Oneida  mission  at  Green  Bay,  Wisconsin. 
This  was  one  of  the  missions  outside  his  imme- 
diate jurisdiction  which  were  committed  at  first 
to  his  care.  It  was  also  that  to  which  allusion 
has  already  been  made  as  the  western  home  of 
Indians  formerly  under  the  care  of  Bishop 
Hobart.  "Many  whom  Bishop  Hobart  con- 
firmed in  New  York  state,  fifty  years  before," 
said  Bishop  Hare  touching,  in  the  "Reminis- 
cences" already  quoted,  upon  this  first  visitation, 
"brought  their  grandchildren  to  be  confii'med  by 
his  grandson." 

In  a  letter  printed  in  the  May,  1873,  issue 
of  The  Church  and  the  Indians,  a  little  journal 
published  by  the  Indian  Commission  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  Bishop  Hare 
describes  his  impressions  of  this  first  experience 
as  a  Bishop  to  the  Indians.     The  forlornness  of 


44      LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

their  condition  does  not  blind  him  to  the  progress 
they  have  made  or  to  the  ground  for  hope  for 
their  future.  At  the  end  of  the  letter  he  writes : 
"Easter  night. — This  day  of  days  is  over.  A 
happier  Easter  I  never  spent;  from  all  directions 
the  Indians  wended  their  way  tliis  morning  to 
their  unpretending  sanctuary.  The  building 
(paved  floor,  galleries,  vestibule  and  many  of  the 
windows)  was  crowded  with  people  and  a  more 
reverent  and  attentive  congregation,  a  congre- 
gation in  which  there  were  more  men,  I  have 
rarely  seen.  I  preached  to  them  by  the  aid  of 
an  interpreter  from  the  text,  'I  am  He  that  Kveth, 
and  was  dead;  and,  behold,  I  am  alive  forever- 
more,  and  have  the  keys  of  death  and  hell.' 
Twenty  candidates  for  confirmation  then  ap- 
proached the  chancel  rail  and  after  being 
addressed,  were  confirmed.  The  Holy  Com- 
munion was  then  administered,  the  whole  congre- 
gation remaining,  and  at  least  one  hundred  and 
twenty  of  them  partaking  in  the  celebration.  I 
could  have  wept  like  a  little  child.  And  when, 
having  taken  my  seat  in  a  chair  before  the  chancel 
rail,  the  whole  congregation,  men  and  women  and 
children,  filed  by  me  and  took  me  by  the  hand, 
one  old  woman  slipping  a  dollar  bill  in  my  hand 
as  she  pressed  it,  one  man  saying-,  'You  have 
made  us  happy,'  and  another  whispering  in  my 
ear,  'Pray  for  the  Oneidas,'  I  forgot  that  I  was 


A  PIONEER  IN  NIOBRARA  45 

far  away  from  home.  My  happiness  was  with- 
out alloy,  and  my  cup  was  running  over  with  it." 

In  a  briefer  letter  following  these  words  from 
Bishop  Hare  the  resident  missionary  declares: 
"The  Indians  say  they  understood  nearly  all  he 
said  before  the  translator  interpreted  it.  His 
eye  and  voice  and  manner  talked  to  them."  This 
fii'st  of  all  records  of  the  impression  he  made 
upon  his  Indians  confirms  the  belief  that  there 
was  in  his  manner  of  speech  and  of  thought  a 
certain  native  quality  which  gave  the  Indians  a 
feeling  of  kinship  with  him,  and  to  others  a  vivid 
sense  that  he  was  representing  truly  the  people 
whose  champion  he  became. 

The  "Reminiscences"  deal  so  fully  with  the 
beginnings  of  liis  work  that  several  pages  by 
Bishop  Hare  himself  will  best  continue  the  nar- 
rative : 

"I  was  desirous  of  studying  the  condition  of 
the  semi-civilized  Indians  before  going  to  the 
wilder  tribes  of  the  Northwest,  and  therefore  first 
made  a  visit  to  the  Indian  Territory  of  the 
Southwest.  Wliile  I  was  en  route,  the  whole 
country  was  plunged  into  a  frenzy  of  excitement, 
and  of  denunciation  of  the  whole  Indian  race, 
by  the  Modoc  massacre,  and  the  mouths  of  many 
sober  men  were  filled  with  calls  for  revenge,  such 
as  at  other  times  they  were  wont  to  denounce  as 
the  characteristic  of  the  vindictive  Sioux.     The 


46     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

general  of  the  army  telegraphed  a  subordinate 
that  he  would  be  'fully  justified  in  the  utter  exter- 
mination' of  the  JNIodocs.  Friends  wrote  me 
that  a  blow  had  been  struck  at  all  efforts  for  the 
Indians  which  w^as  simply  fatal,  conclusive;  and 
that  it  would  be  folly  in  me  to  persist.  I  pressed 
on,  nevertheless,  only  lamenting  that  the  treach- 
ery of  a  handful  of  Indians  was  allowed  by  an 
intelligent  people  to  govern  opinion,  while  the 
good  behavior  of  tens  of  thousands  of  Indians 
was  utterly  forgotten. 

"From  the  Indian  Territory  I  made  my  way 
to  Dakota,  like  Abraham,  who  went  out  not 
knowing  whither  he  went.  I  reached  Yankton 
City,  April  29,  1873.  A  military  ofScer,  to 
whom  I  was  there  introduced  as  being  the  Mis- 
sionary Bishop  to  the  Indians,  somewhat  bluntly 
replied:  'Indeed!  I  don't  envy  you  your  task.' 
I  recalled  the  words,  'Let  not  him  who  putteth 
on  his  armor  boast  himself  as  he  that  putteth  it 
off,'  and  simply  repHed,  'A  minister,  like  a  mili- 
tary officer,  obeys  orders.'  Whatever  was  micer- 
tain,  I  was  at  least  sure  of  my  conmiission. 

"My  arrival  in  Yankton  occurred  just  after 
one  of  the  most  memorable  storms  that  Dakota 
has  ever  known,  and  the  effects  of  it  were  plainly 
to  be  seen  in  the  carcasses  of  cattle  which  had 
perished  in  it,  and  in  huge  banks  of  snow  which 
lay  still  unmelted.     The  storm  had  overtaken 


A  PIONEER  IN  NIOBRARA  4j7 

Custer's  celebrated  cavalry,  while  they  were 
encamped  about  a  mile  or  two  outside  of  Yank- 
ton, and  brave  men,  who  never  quailed  before  the 
foe,  had  fled  in  complete  rout  before  the  tempest, 
and  taken  refuge  in  any  house  where  they  could 
find  a  shelter,  leaving  all  their  camp  equipment 
and  horses  to  their  fate. 

"From  Yankton  I  passed  up  the  Missouri 
River  along  which  the  main  body  of  the  mis- 
sionary^ enterprise  of  our  Church  among  the 
Indians  was  then  located.  I  found  that  mission- 
ary work  had  been  established  on  the  Santee, 
Yankton  and  Ponca  Reserves,  and  three  brave 
young  deacons,  fresh  from  the  Berkeley  Divin- 
ity School,  had,  the  previous  fall,  pressed  up  the 
river  and  begun  the  task  of  opening  the  way  for 
missionary  effort  among  the  Indians  of  the 
Lower  Brule,  the  Crow  Creek  and  Cheyenne 
River  Reserves. 

"Altogether,  there  were,  besides  three  natives, 
five  wliite  clergymen  and  five  ministering  women. 
I  could  not  then,  I  cannot  now,  admire  enough 
the  courage  with  which  these  Soldiers  of  Christ 
had  entered  upon  the  work  and  the  fortitude 
with  which  they  persevered  in  it.  Their  entrance 
upon  it  was  largely,  of  necessity,  a  leap  in  the 
dark,  and  their  continuance  in  it  a  groping  where 
there  was  no  light  and  no  trodden  w^ay.  They 
had  made  the  wild  man  their  companion,  an 


48     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

unknown  heathenism  their  field  of  labor,  and  the 
wilderness  their  home.  Nor  could  I  but  wonder 
at  the  grand  faith,  the  dauntless  conviction  of 
duty  and  the  tremendous  moral  energy  of  the 
one  man — William  Welsh — who  had  both  excited 
and  backed  their  efforts  by  his  zeal,  liis  counsel 
and  his  wealth.     .     .     . 

"But  what  about  the  Indians?  I  had  read 
much  of  what  had  been  written,  by  delighted 
visitors,  of  the  heartiness  and  reverence  with 
which  the  services  of  the  Church  were  rendered 
by  these  humble  people.  And  all  that  was  ever 
written  I  found  more  than  realized  when  it  was 
my  privilege  to  kneel  with  them  in  their  little 
sanctuaries.  I  could  understand  how  the  brave, 
self-denying  missionaries  to  whom  I  had  come 
could  feel,  regarding  their  converts,  as  the 
Apostle  exclaims:  'What  thanks  can  we  render 
to  God  for  all  the  joy  wherewith  we  joy  for  your 
sakes  before  our  God?'  I  found  that  a  great 
deal  of  tn.ie  and  effective  work  had  been  done — 
work  w^hich  has  affected  the  whole  after-history 
of  the  jNIission. 

"It  was  not  long  before  I  saw  both  sides  of 
Indian  life.  The  better  side:  said  a  shrewd 
Christian  chief,  as  I  was  about  to  leave  the  rude 
chapel  erected  among  liis  people:  'Stop,  friend, 
I  have  a  few  words  to  say.  I  am  glad  to  hear 
you  are  going  to  visit  the  wild,  upper  tribes. 


A  PIONEER  IN  NIOBRA'RA  49 

Companies  of  them  often  come  down  to  visit  my 
band,  and  I  always  take  them  to  see  this  chapel. 
I  think  a  good  deal  depends  upon  the  impression 
my  chapel  makes  on  them.  I  tliink  if  it  w^as  put 
in  better  order  it  would  make  a  better  impression 
than  it  does.  The  rain  and  snow  come  through 
that  roof.  This  floor  is  not  even.  Now,  you  are 
called  an  Apostle.  That  is  a  good  name.  I 
believe  it  means  "one  sent."  But  there  are  many 
people  to  whom  you  are  sent  to  whom  you  can- 
not go,  for  they  are  wild  people.  But  these  vis- 
itors of  mine  go  everywhere  and  tell  everywhere 
what  they  have  seen.'  The  wilder  side,  too,  I 
saw,  for  among  the  Lower  Brules,  a  fellow  rode 
up  by  the  side  of  our  party,  with  an  airy,  reck- 
less, dare-devil  manner,  and  remarked,  as  he 
flourished  his  weapon:  'I  want  my  hoy  to  go  to 
school,  but  I  am  an  old  man.  I  am  wounded  all 
over.  I  like  to  fight.  I  love  war.  I  went  ofl" 
the  other  day  among  some  strange  Indians. 
They  said:  "Go  away,  or  we'll  kill  you."  "Kifl 
away,"  said  I;  "that's  what  I  like."  '  He  was  a 
type  of  hundreds  and  thousands.  But  is  it  an 
unheard-of  thing  for  white  men  to  hate  the 
restraints  of  religion  and  morality  for  themselves, 
and  yet  wish  them  for  their  children? 

"The  scenes  grew  wilder  as  I  pushed  farther 
on.  A  service  held  at  the  Cheyenne  River 
Agency,  in  the  open  air,  left  a  deep  impression 


50     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

on  my  mind.  It  was  a  strange  scene.  In  front 
of  us,  forty  or  fifty  feet  distant,  rolled  the  Mis- 
souri River.  Nearer  at  hand,  grouped  in  a  semi- 
circle, fringed  with  a  few  curious  soldiers  and 
employes  of  the  Agency,  sat  the  Indians;  many 
bedecked  with  paint  and  feathers  and  carrying 
guns  and  tomahawks;  some  in  a  soberer  guise, 
betokening  that  they  were  inclining  to  the  white 
man's  ways;  while  all  gazed,  apparently  half 
amused,  half  awe-struck,  at  the  vested  missionary 
of  the  station  as  he  sang  the  hymns  and  ojffered 
the  prayers  of  the  Church,  and  then  at  the  Indian 
deacon  and  at  me,  as  we  spoke  the  words  of  Life. 

"After  a  study  of  the  field,  and  much  con- 
versation with  the  clergy,  I  reached  some  conclu- 
sions, and  began  to  lay  out  settled  plans  of  work. 

"1st.  Mapping  out  the  Field. — I  soon  saw 
that  my  work  was  not  to  be  that  of  a  settled 
pastor  in  daily  contact  with  his  flock;  but  that  of 
a  general  superintendent,  whose  duty  it  would  be 
to  reach  the  people  through  their  pastors ;  not  so 
much  to  do  local  work  as  to  make  local  work 
possible  and  easy  for  others. 

"The  whole  field  was  therefore  mapped  out 
into  divisions,  these  divisions  being  ordinarily  the 
territory  connected  with  a  United  States  Indian 
Agency.  The  special  care  of  each  of  them  was 
entrusted  to  one  experienced  presbyter,  and 
around  him  w^ere  grouped  the  Indian  ministers 


A  PIONEER  IN  NIOBRARA  51 

and  catechists  and  others  who  were  engaged  in 
evangehstic  work  within  his  division. 

"Their  pay,  I  arranged,  should  pass  to  them 
not  directly  from  me,  or  from  the  Board,  but 
through  the  hands  of  the  presbyters  immediately 
over  them,  that  the  responsibility  of  the  assistants 
to  their  respective  chiefs  might  be  duly  felt. 
These  assistants  were  to  reside  near  their  several 
chapels  and  conduct  the  services  there,  and 
monthly  the  chief  missionary  was  to  make  his 
visitation,  for  the  purpose  of  ministering  the 
Word  and  Sacraments  and  inspecting  the  condi- 
tion of  his  field.  The  whole  field  was  soon,  in 
this  way,  put  in  manageable  shape. 

"2d.  Boarding  ScliooU. — JMy  visit  to  the  In- 
dian Territory  and  my  study  of  the  Indian 
problem  in  my  own  field,  convinced  me  quite 
early  that  the  Boarding  School  ought  to  be  one 
of  the  most  prominent  features  of  our  Mission- 
ary work. 

"I  thought  that  children  gathered  in  such 
schools  would  soon  become,  in  their  neat  and 
orderly  appearance,  their  increasing  intelligence, 
and  their  personal  testimony  to  the  loving 
and  disinterested  lives  of  the  missionaries  with 
whom  they  dwelt,  living  epistles,  known  and 
read  of  their  wilder  brethren.  They  would  form 
the  nuclei  of  congregations  at  the  chapels  con- 
nected with  the  schools,  and  learn  to  carry  on 


52     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

with  spirit  the  responses  and  music  of  the 
services. 

"I  also  proposed  to  establish  a  central  Board- 
ing School  of  higher  grade,  at  the  place  of  the 
Bishop's  residence,  to  be  conducted  under  his 
immediate  supervision,  to  which  the  other  schools 
should  be  tributary  by  furnishing  their  most 
promising  boys  for  education  as  Teachers,  Cate- 
chists  and  Missionaries. 

"This  plan  was  carried  out,  and  thus  grew 
up  the  St.  Paul's,  St.  Mary's,  St.  Jolm's  and 
Hope  Indian  Boarding  Schools,  which,  under 
their  respective  heads,  have  won  a  deservedly 
high  reputation.  St.  Paul's  Boarding  School 
was  the  first  venture  in  this  line  among  the 
Indians,  in  Dakota. 

"The  last  feature  of  the  plan  was  modified 
later,  when  the  establishment  at  the  East  of 
schools  for  the  Indians,  like  Hampton  Institute, 
offered  peculiar  advantages  in  the  way  of  higher 
education.  It  then  seemed  to  be  wiser  to  send  out 
of  the  Indian  country  to  these  schools  the  pupils 
who  had  proved  themselves  of  most  promise  and 
most  likely  to  develop  into  teachers  and  min- 
isters. 

"3d.  Limitations. — I  next  realized  that,  as 
no  man  can  do  everything,  I  must  eliminate  from 
my  plan  of  work  those  things  which  it  was  not 
absolutely  necessary  for  me  to  do,  and  devote  my 


,.^'vC:      ^ 

^^I^PF-   x\^^,  .^ 

BISHOP  HARE  ABOUT 


A  PIONEER  IN  NIOBRARA  53 

attention  to  those  things  which  no  one  else  could 
or  would  do,  and  to  the  tilings  most  essential 
in  one  holding  the  position  and  placed  in  the  con- 
ditions in  which  I  found  myself. 

"There  stretched  before  me  vast  tracts  of  wild 
country  inhabited  by  roaming  tribes.  It  was  to 
be  my  duty  to  explore  them  and  make  a  way  for 
the  entrance  of  the  Church.  There  were  in  the 
whole  district  but  five  churches  and  but  two 
dwellings  for  the  missionaries,  and  not  a  single 
Boarding  School.  The  Missionary  Board  em- 
ployed no  business  agent  in  the  field,  and  I  saw 
that  I  must  be  a  builder  of  jDarsonages,  schools, 
and  churches.  There  were  but  seven  clergymen 
in  the  mission;  I  saw  that  I  must  seek  out,  or 
raise  up,  more.  Obstacles  of  varied  and  peculiar 
nature  met  the  workers  at  every  turn.  I  saw 
that  I  must  be  their  friend,  counselor  and  com- 
forter— a  real  pastor  of  pastors — if  I  could  be. 
Large  funds  would  be  needed.  I  was  made  to 
feel  that  it  was  left  largely  to  me  to  raise  them. 
'The  Mission  had  two  ends,'  I  was  told;  'one 
in  the  East,  where  the  money  was,  and  the  other 
in  the  Indian  Territory,  where  the  work  was.' 
I  was  expected  to  look  after  both  ends. 

"I  gave  up,  therefore,  all  thought  of  ever 
learning  the  several  native  languages  with  which 
I  was  confronted,  except  so  far  as  was  necessary 
in  order  to  read  the  vernacular  service.     It  is  my 


64     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

associates,  and  not  I,  who  have  mastered  the 
native  languages  and  proclaimed  to  the  Indians, 
in  their  own  tongue,  the  wonderful  works  of  God. 
"Now  a  few  words  as  to  my  general  views  on 
the  Indian  question.  I  soon  came  to  look  upon 
everything  as  provisional — to  quote  from  one  of 
my  annual  reports — ^which,  if  permanently  main- 
tained, would  tend  to  make  Indian  life  something 
separate  from  the  common  life  of  our  country: 
a  solid  foreign  mass  indigestible  by  our  common 
civilization.  I  saw  that  just  because  it  has  been 
an  indigestible  mass  has  our  civilization  been  all 
these  years  constantly  trying  to  vomit  it,  and  so  get 
rid  of  a  cause  of  discomfort.  Ordinary  laws  must 
have  their  way.  All  reservations,  whether  the 
reserving  of  land  from  the  ordinary  laws  of  set- 
tlement, or  the  reserving  of  the  Indian  nation- 
ality from  absorption  into  ours,  or  the  reserving 
of  old  tribal  superstitions  and  notions  and  habits 
from  the  natural  process  of  decadence,  or  the 
reserving  of  the  Indian  language  from  extinc- 
tion, are  only  necessary  evils  or  but  temporary 
expedients.  Safety  for  250,000  Indians  divided 
up  into  over  a  hundred  tribes  speaking  as  many 
different  languages,  scattered  on  about  seventy 
different  reservations  among  50,000,000  English- 
speaking  people  can  be  found,  only  if  the  smaller 
people  flow  in  with  the  current  of  the  life  and 
ways  of  the  larger.     The  Indians  are  not  an 


A  PIONEER  IN  NIOBRARA  55 

insulated  people,  like  some  of  the  islanders  of 
the  South  Sea.  Our  work  is  not  that  of  building 
up  a  National  Indian  Church  with  a  national 
liturgy  in  the  Indian  tongue.  It  is  rather  that 
of  resolving  the  Indian  structure  and  preparing 
its  parts  for  being  taken  up  into  the  great  whole 
in  Church  and  State. 

"From  the  first,  therefore,  I  struggled  against 
the  notion  that  we  were  missionaries  to  Indians 
alone  and  not  missionaries  to  all  men;  I  pressed 
the  study  of  the  English  language  and  its  con- 
versational use  in  our  schools,  and,  however  im- 
perfect my  efforts,  the  aim  of  them  has  been 
to  break  down  'the  middle  wall  of  partition' 
between  whites  and  Indians,  and  to  seek  not  the 
welfare  of  one  class  or  race,  but  the  common 
good. 

"The  character  of  the  work  to  be  done  appears 
from  the  fact  that  the  Indians  with  w^hom  the 
JNIission  has  had  to  deal  were  some  of  the  most 
reckless  and  the  wildest  of  our  Xorth  American 
tribes,  and  scattered  over  a  district  some  parts 
of  which  were  twelve  days'  travel  distant  from 
others.  So  desolate  was  the  country  that  on  one 
of  my  trips  I  remember  not  seeing  a  human  face 
or  a  human  habitation,  not  even  an  Indian  lodge, 
for  eight  days.  Emissaries  of  evil  had  reached 
the  Indians  long  before  the  missionaries  of  tht 
Cross  appeared.     'All  the  white  men  that  came 


56     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

before  you,'  replied  a  chief,  'said  that  they  had 
come  to  do  us  good,  but  they  stole  our  goods 
and  corrupted  our  women;  and  how  are  we  to 
know  that  you  are  different?' " 

"This,"  said  Bishop  Hare  in  another  account 
of  the  incident,  "was  carrying  the  war  into  Africa 
with  a  vengeance ;  but  I  replied,  'Well,  you  must 
watch  and  see  how  we  live.'  " 

The  life  which  he  proceeded  to  Hve  was  a  thing 
which  the  Indians  could  see  with  their  own  eyes. 
We  can  see  it  chiefly  through  the  pictures  which 
Bishop  Hare  himself  made  of  it  from  time  to 
time.  By  uniting  separated  passages  from 
reports  and  letters  the  principal  aspects  of  his 
life  can  be  presented  in  order. 

The  outward  form  of  his  many  acti\aties  on 
behalf  of  the  Indians  was  of  course  the  expres- 
sion of  an  inner  spirit.  Of  that  spirit  the  draft 
of  a  prayer  fomid  among  his  early  papers  gives 
some  intimation: 

"O  Most  Gracious  Master,  The  Bishop  and 
Shepherd  of  all  souls,  Who  has  deigned  to  call 
me,  unworthy,  to  an  office  in  character  like  Thine 
own,  however  beneath  it  in  degree:  vouchsafe  to 
me  also  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit  Who  was  in  Thee, 
the  Spirit  of  wisdom  and  understanding,  the 
Spirit  of  counsel  and  might,  the  Spirit  of  knowl- 
edge and  of  the  fear  of  the  Lord. 


A  PIONEER  IN  NIOBRARA  57 

"Let  me  not  judge  after  the  sight  of  mine 
eyes,  nor  reprove  after  the  hearing  of  mine  ears. 
May  I  do  nothing  by  partiality.  May  I  weep 
with  all.  May  I  rejoice  with  all.  Teach  me  to 
bind  up  the  broken-hearted,  to  preach  good  tid- 
ings unto  the  meek,  to  proclaim  the  acceptable 
year  of  the  Lord,  and  the  day  of  vengeance  of 
our  God.  Enable  me  to  be  gentle  imto  all  men, 
apt  to  teach,  patient,  in  meekness  instructing 
those  who  oppose  themselves." 

Of  more  uncertain  date  is  the  following 
"Prayer  for  Indian  Missions": 

"O  Most  Merciful  God,  Who  hast  promised 
that  all  those  who  dwell  in  the  wilderness  shall 
kneel  before  Thy  Son,  remember,  we  pray  Thee, 
the  Indian  Tribes  of  our  land  and  all  those  who 
have  gone  to  them  in  Thy  Name. 

"Guide  and  govern  all  those  who  are  put  in 
civil  or  military  authority  over  them,  that  the 
people  may  lead  a  quiet  and  peaceable  life  in  all 
godliness  and  honesty. 

"Set  up  and  strengthen  Thy  Church  among 
them,  that  they  may  all  come  to  know  Thee,  the 
only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  Whom  Thou 
hast  sent. 

"Endue  its  Ministers  with  Heavenly  love  and 
wisdom,  and  make  them  ensamples  to  the  flock. 

"Sanctify  the  people.     Preserve  their  Mar- 


58     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

riages  in  peace  and  concord;  nourish  their  in- 
fants; lead  forward  their  youth;  sustain  their 
aged ;  comfort  the  weak-hearted ;  gather  together 
the  scattered;  settle  the  roving;  and  knit  them 
all  together,  working  with  their  hands  the  thing 
that  is  good,  in  Thy  Holy  Church ;  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord.     Amen." 

For  the  spirit  which  controlled  his  practical 
deaUngs  at  the  very  beginning  of  his  enterprise, 
the  concluding  paragraphs  of  his  first  Annual 
Report  as  JMissionary  Bishop  will  speak  with 
clarity  and  vigor: 

"On  many  subjects  connected  mth  the  Indian, 
I  ought  not  to  be  in  haste  to  form  an  opinion; 
but  this  I  may  now  say,  that  I  have  seen  noth- 
ing to  lead  me  to  tliink  that  there  is  anything  in 
the  Indian  problem  to  drive  us  either  to  quackery 
or  despair.  It  will  find  its  solution,  under  the 
favor  of  God,  in  the  faithful  execution  of  the 
powers  committed  by  God  to  the  Civil  Govern- 
ment, and  a  common-sense  administration  of  the 
gracious  gifts  deposited  with  His  Church. 

"If  any  one  w^onders  that  the  large  sums  of 
money,  spent  by  the  Government,  have  accom- 
plished so  little  for  the  Indians,  let  him  remember 
that  for  years  these  moneys  were  not  used  to 
elevate  the  Indians,  but  were  devoured  by  those 
wlio  should  have  been  their  guardians. 


A  PIONEER  IN  NIOBRARA  59 

"If  he  wonders  that  the  Indians  have  learned 
so  Httle  of  useful  trades  from  the  mechanics 
whom  the  Government  has  employed  to  live 
among  them  and  teach  them,  let  him  consider 
that  these  mechanics  have  often  been  shrewd 
enough  to  see,  and  unprincipled  enough  to  act 
upon,  the  fact  that  the  less  they  taught  the  In- 
dians the  longer  they  would  be  dependent,  and 
the  longer  their  appointed  teachers  would  retain 
their  places. 

"If  he  wonders  that  the  mere  presence  of  civil- 
ization has  not,  long  ere  this,  ameliorated  the 
condition  of  the  red  man,  let  him  remember 
that  the  van  of  civilization  is  its  vilest  offscour- 
ings; that  its  fii'st  representatives  generally  de- 
spise the  Indians,  and  condescend  to  them  in 
nothing  but  the  gratification  of  inordinate  appe- 
tites and  desires;  and  that  when  civilization  of 
a  better  type  appears,  it  is  too  often  so  bent  on 
its  own  progress,  and  so  far  from  helpful  or 
kindly,  that  its  advance,  like  that  of  a  railroad 
train  at  full  speed,  dashes  in  pieces  those  unlucky 
wanderers  who  happen  to  stand  in  its  way,  and 
leaves  the  others  with  only  a  more  discouraging 
sense  of  the  length  of  the  road,  and  of  the  slow- 
ness with  which  they  overcome  it.  In  a  town 
of  Michigan,  ten  years  ago,  I  saw  half -wild,  half- 
drunken  Indians  employed  by  white  men  to  per- 
form diabolical  antics  to  attract  men  to  liquor 


60     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

saloons.  In  Minnesota,  ten  years  ago,  I  read 
in  the  daily  papers  the  offer  of  the  State  of  $250 
for  the  scalp  of  any  Indian,  delivered  at  a  desig- 
nated office.  In  Dakota,  to-day,  I  find,  not  to 
speak  of  other  iniquities,  the  Indian  woman, 
despised  squaw  though  she  is,  made  the  victim 
of  the  brothel. 

"This  state  of  things  now  stares  good  men  in 
the  face.  It  is  high  time,  surely,  for  eiFort  of 
another  kind.  The  Government  and  the  Church 
call  upon  them  to  stand  up  as  champions  of  what 
is  right.  If  ever  the  warning  of  the  wise  man 
be  in  season,  it  is  now.  'If  thou  forbear  to 
deliver  them  that  are  drawn  unto  death,  and 
those  that  are  ready  to  be  slain;  if  thou  sayest. 
Behold,  we  knew  it  not;  doth  not  He  that  pon- 
dereth  the  heart  consider  it?  and  He  that  keepeth 
thy  soul,  doth  not  He  know  it  ?  and  shall  not  He 
render  to  every  man  according  to  His  works?' 

"Discussions  of  the  probable  future  of  the 
Indians  are  beside  the  question,  and  dangerous 
because  they  drown  the  call  of  present  duty. 
Suppose  these  people  to  be  designed  by  Provi- 
dence to  be  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of 
water.  Our  duty  is  to  fit  them  for  that  lot. 
Suppose  that  they  are  to  be  merged  in  our  more 
numerous  race.  Our  duty  is  to  fit  them  for  that 
absorption  by  intermarriage,  and  so  arrest  the 
present    vicious    intermingling.     Suppose    that 


A  PIONEER  IN  NIOBRARA  61 

they  are  to  die  out.  Our  duty  is  to  prepare  them 
for  their  departure.  Our  duty  is  the  plainer, 
because  the  treatment  which  will  fit  these  people 
for  any  one  of  these  lots  will  fit  them  for  either 
of  the  others. 

"But  I  have  heard  it  said  that  practical  men 
have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  Indians  should 
be  EXTERMINATED.  What  if  someone  should 
make  this  reply?  If  they  are  to  be  extermi- 
nated, now  is  the  golden  opportunity.  Nature 
has  laid  the  Santee  Indians  low  with  smallj)ox. 
Let  the  advocates  of  extermination  come  to  her 
help.  Their  task  is  easy.  Whole  tribes  of 
Indians  have  perished  from  smallpox  in  the 
past.  Parched  with  fever,  its  victims  have 
crawled  to  the  river  brink  to  slack  their  thirst, 
and,  too  weak  to  make  their  way  back  again,  have 
died  there,  until  the  river's  bank  has  been  lined, 
for  miles,  with  row  upon  row  of  ghastly  corpses. 
With  a  little  timely  help  given  to  nature's  work 
among  the  Santees,  such  a  scene  may  be  beheld 
again.  There  are  thirty  or  forty  Santee  scouts 
just  on  their  way  back  towards  their  homes,  from 
service  with  a  military  expedition  sent  out  to 
protect  a  railroad  survey  from  molestation  from 
their  savage  brethren.  Brave,  gallant  fellows 
they  are,  some  of  them  communicants  of  our 
Church,  who  have  won  the  commendation  of  their 
officers.     A  telegram  has  been  sent  that  they 


62     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

ought  not  to  return.  Let  some  advocate  of  ex- 
termination telegraph  them  just  the  contrary. 
They  are  panting  to  see  their  wives  and  children, 
and  will  be  glad  of  an  excuse.  Indians  have 
children,  black-eyed  and  merry  as  larks.  Let 
the  gentle  members  of  the  Sisterhood  of  Ex- 
termination wrap  them  up  and  sing  them  to  sleep 
in  infected  blankets  stripped  from  their  dying 
mothers.  Let  them  gather  together  the  cast-ofF 
clothing  and  bedding  of  the  sick,  and  send  it  off 
among  the  upper  tribes.  The  winter  is  coming 
on.  Many  are  shivering  for  want  of  clothing. 
The  advocates  of  extermination  may  easily  scat- 
ter these  infected  garments  and  the  fatal  plague 
with  them  wherever  they  will.  Here,  then,  is 
work  for  the  advocates  of  extermination.  I  call 
for  volunteers. 

"JManifestly,  the  cry  for  extermination  is  but 
a  grim  joke — perforce,  perhaps,  resorted  to  by 
intensely  practical  men  to  startle  our  too  great 
enthusiasm  into  common-sense.  Rightly  con- 
ducted and  presented,  INIissions  to  the  Indians 
will  commend  themselves  to  all.  Real  advocates 
of  extermination,  there  are  none." 

These  are  the  words  of  a  man  passionately  in 
earnest.  The  intensity  of  feeling  in  them  was 
matched  by  the  intense  activity  which  he  brought 
to  his  work  at  the  first  and  maintained  to  the  end. 


A  PIONEER  IN  NIOBRARA  68 

The  Indians  in  general  came  to  know  him  pri- 
marily as  a  traveler,  moving-  from  camp  to  camp, 
from  agency  to  agency,  with  a  celeritj^  which  won 
him  the  name  of  Zitkana  duzahan,  or  swift  bird. 
We  may  well  turn,  then,  to  a  few  passages  ill- 
lustrating  the  method  and  scope  of  his  move- 
ments about  the  jurisdiction.  One  of  the  earliest 
of  his  letters  is  as  follows : 

[To  Mrs.  M.  A.  DeW.  Howe.] 
"Cheyenne  Agency,  Dakota, 

"July  30,  1873. 
"My  Dear  Mrs.  Howe: 

"I  write  from  the  most  distant  mission  of  this 
jurisdiction,  on  the  border  land  occupied  by 
Indians  who  are  ready  to  live  in  peace  and  begin 
to  learn  the  white  man's  ways  and  by  bands  of 
the  wilder  sort  who  are  here  for  a  few  days  and 
then  off  upon  the  war  path.  From  Yankton 
City,  the  railroad  terminus,  it  is  a  sixty  miles' 
drive  to  Yankton  Agency  where  I  intend  to  live, 
and  where  I  am  beginning  to  build  the  School, 
on  behalf  of  which  you  may  have  seen  my  news- 
paper appeal.  Thence  a  twelve  hours'  drive 
brings  you  to  a  solitary  ranch  kept  by  a  French 
half-breed,  peopled  with  vermin  of  several  names, 
with  accommodations  (so-called)  for  traveling 
folk.  These  ranches  are  log  huts,  the  chinks 
filled  up  with  mud,  roofed  also  with  the  same 


64)     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

materiah  Everything  about  them  is  disgusting. 
The  food  is  loathsome.  The  men  who  keep  them 
are,  many  of  them,  fugitives  from  justice  and 
their  ranches  are  the  haunts  of  horse  thieves  and 
murderers.  I  have  driven  up  to  one  of  them  to 
find  four  men,  each  of  whom  was  a  notorious 
desperado  and  murderer,  drinking  and  just 
enough  under  the  influence  of  liquor  to  be  over- 
polite  and  too  much  bent  on  having  me  drink 
with  them.  I  try  to  put  on  an  air  of  utter  un- 
concern, chat  about  the  weather,  etc.,  manage  to 
have  some  candy  with  me  for  the  little  ones,  try 
to  eat  what  they  set  before  me  with  relish,  com- 
pliment the  wife,  if  I  can,  upon  one  article  at 
least  of  the  fare,  select  the  cleanest  part  of  the 
floor,  or  of  the  ground  outside,  spread  a  com- 
fortable which  I  carry  with  me  for  my  bed  and 
lie  down  to  sleep.  And  though  I  am  sure  I  do 
not  deserve  it,  I  have  the  promised  blessing, 
'When  thou  liest  down,  thou  shalt  not  be  afraid.' 
I  should  enjoy  the  rest  of  it,  *yea,  thou  shalt  lie 
down  and  thy  sleep  shall  be  sweet,'  except  that 
vermin  abound  and  I  haven't  enough  flesh  on  my 
bones  to  make  a  floor  a  comfortable  resting  place. 
"Another  day's  drive  of  fifteen  hours  brings 
me  to  the  Crow  Creek  Agency,  where  we  have 
a  mission  and  where  the  comforts  of  life,  or  what 
seem  so  compared  with  the  ranches,  abound. 
The  fourth  day's  drive  brings  me  to  another 


A  PIONEER  IN  NIOBRARA  65 

ranch,  with  its  delights,  and  the  fifth  day  brings 
me  to  Fort  Sully,  where  there  is  refined  society, 
and  to  this  Agency  (ten  miles  above  the  fort), 
where  there  are  a  garrison,  the  Agency  people, 
and  our  mission. 

"It  is  at  one  of  these  Indian  agencies,  the 
Yankton  Agency,  that  I  expect  to  reside.  The 
United  States  Indian  Agent  is  a  clergj^man  of 
our  Church,  for  a  time  disabled,  who  has  taken 
his  present  position  in  the  hope  of  restoring  his 
health,  the  Rev.  J.  E.  Gasmann.  He  is  a  very 
excellent  man.  His  wife  is  a  sister  of  Bishop 
Clarkson.  They  both  have  done  everything  they 
could  to  make  me  comfortable.  Indeed  I  do  not 
know  what  I  should  have  done  without  them. 

"At  each  Agency  there  is  besides  the  agent, 
a  head  farmer,  head  blacksmith,  head  miller,  etc., 
so  that  there  is  a  little  gathering  of  white  people 
besides  the  IMission  family.  This  family  at  the 
Yankton  Agency  consists  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cook, 
a  faithful  man;  the  Indian  Deacon,  Luke 
Walker;  and  two  ladies.  Miss  Leigh,  for  many 
years  a  true  helper  in  this  field,  a  lady  of  forty- 
five  or  fifty,  and  Miss  Baker,  a  quite  young  per- 
son whose  family  live  in  Davenport,  Iowa.  This 
iSIission  is  among  a  tribe  who  have  been  for  ten 
or  twelve  years  advancing  gradually  in  civihza- 
tion ;  there  are  no  hostiles  among  them ;  you  may 
drive  all  over  their  reservation  by  day  or  by  night 


66     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

unmolested,  and  sleep  with  your  windows  open 
on  the  first  floor.  The  reservation  stretches 
along  the  IMissouri  River  which  is  bounded  by- 
beautiful  bluiFs  on  the  opposite  side;  a  fair  share 
of  the  conveniences  of  life  can  be  enjoyed  there; 
and,  except  that  all  I  love  are  far  away,  there  is 
no  reason  why  I  should  not  be  happy  there.  In- 
deed, I  believe  I  am  happier  than  most  as  things 
now  are.  I  have  made  already  many  friends  at 
the  various  military  posts  along  the  river,  am  re- 
ceived with  a  cordiality,  which  is  an  inexpressible 
balm,  and  have  had  the  joy  of  seeing  a  deep  re- 
ligious interest  spring  up  among  officers  and 
others  who  had  been,  to  say  the  least,  indifferent 
to  religion. 

"Still,  you  guess  rightly  that  my  thoughts 
often  run  off  to  that  little  one  who  was  sleeping 
so  sweetly  when  you  wrote,  and  to  others,  your- 
self among  them,  whom  God  has  given  me  to 
love  and  who  are  only  less  dear  than  he.  I  am 
rejoicing  in  the  expectation  of  coming  East  early 
in  September,  and  trust  that  you  may  still  be  at 
Bristol  when  I  an*ive.     .     .     . 

"Always  very  affectionately,  dear  Mrs.  Howe, 

"Yours, 

"W.  H.  H." 

In  the  early  days  of  his  work,  before  the  rail- 
roads had  stretched  far  into  the  country,  the 


A  PIONEER  IN  NIOBRARA  67 

Missouri  River  was  an  important  highway.  A 
picture  of  travel  on  one  of  its  steamboats  is  found 
in  an  early  letter  "To  the  Indian  Aid  Associa- 
tions and  to  my  many  dear  friends  among  the 
children  of  the  Church": 

"On  board  the  steamer  Far  West, 
"Missouri  River,  September  27,  1875. 
"My  Dear  Friends: 

"Having  visited  our  lower  JMissions,  I  am 
now  on  my  waj'^  farther  up  the  Missouri  River 
to  the  JMissions  among  the  Yanktonnais  Sioux 
Indians,  and  to  those  among  the  Sans  Arc, 
Blackfeet,  Minneconjou,  and  other  bands  of 
Sioux.  Far  up  the  River  as  j^ou  think  of  the 
Yankton  ^Mission  as  being,  and  shallow  as  the 
River  is  here  (the  Mate,  even  while  I  write, 
stands  upon  the  side  of  the  boat,  and,  as  he 
plunges  his  measuring  pole  into  the  water,  in  a 
drawHng  tone  calls  out  its  depth,  'Five  feet 
scant!'  Tour  feet!'  'Three  and  half  feet'), 
boats  capable  of  carrying  three  and  four  hundred 
tons  of  freight  navigate  its  waters  for  about 
seventeen  hundred  miles  above  our  Missions. 
The  steamer  Far  West,  on  which  I  am  traveling, 
is,  like  the  rest  of  these  up-river  boats,  about 
twice  the  length  of  the  little  stern-wheel  steamers 
which  ply  on  the  Schuylkill  and  Connecticut 
Rivers. 


68     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

"Fortunately  the  berths  on  this  boat  are  cleaner 
than  those  one  sometimes  hits  upon,  which  is  a 
great  comfort.  It  is  not  over-crowded  either, 
the  only  passengers  besides  myself  being  Mr. 
Hall  and  Mr.  Ashley,  of  the  Mission,  and  an  of- 
ficer and  post-surgeon  stationed  at  one  of  the 
river  posts.  The  Captain,  Clerk  and  Engineer 
are  a  pleasant,  hearty  set  of  fellows.  We  are 
on  the  best  of  terms,  and  out  of  this  state  of 
things  issued  two  very  interesting  services  yes- 
terday, Simday.  The  boat  hands,  however,  are 
the  lowest  of  the  low.  Thej^  are  taken  from  the 
loafers  who  frequent  the  river  towns,  who  are 
called  out  here  'roustabouts,'  I  suppose  because 
they  have  no  settled  homes,  but  roost  about,  now 
here,  now  there.  They  are  men  who,  having 
ended  a  trip  and  got  their  pay,  go  off  on  a  Avild 
carouse  till  their  money  is  all  spent,  when  they  re- 
ship,  their  eyes  bunged  up,  their  bodies  stiff  and 
black  -^^-ith  bruises,  their  faces  cut  and  battered, 
and  their  minds  so  stupid  from  the  effect  of  their 
excesses,  that  they  know  only  enough  to  stumble 
down  to  the  levee  and  aboard  a  boat  and  to  an- 
swer automatically  with  their  tongues  'Aye,  aye. 
Sir,'  to  the  orders  of  the  INIate,  while  they  have 
such  imperfect  control  of  their  arms  and  legs  that 
they  can  at  first  hardly  do  more  than  fimible 
pointlessly  at,  or  spread  themselves  over,  the 
gang-plank  and  other  articles  that  he  bids  them 


A  PIONEER  IN  NIOBRARA  69 

lift.  Tliey  have  been  two  or  three  days  aboard 
now,  however,  and  are  a  httle  straightened  out, 
and  I  managed  to  induce  even  a  number  of  them 
to  attend  the  service.  I  was  down  among  them 
on  the  lower  deck  a  number  of  times  on  Satur- 
day, wishing  to  win  their  good  opinion  in  the 
hope  of  gaining  some  of  them.  They  looked  at 
me  askance  at  fii'st,  as  if  they  felt  that  a  par- 
son and  they  had  nothing  in  common.  They 
laughed  and  half  excused  themselves  on  Sunday, 
as  if  they  hardly  took  in  what  I  meant,  when  I 
told  them  that  I  was  going  to  have  service  and 
wished  that  they  would  come.  They  took  the 
invitation  a  httle  more  seriously  when  I  added 
that  the  Captain  said  they  might  come  if  they 
chose.  Then  several  of  them  went  off  and 
shouted  down  the  hold  to  their  companions  in  a 
half-serious,  half-comic  tone,  'Say,  Bill,  Joe, 
come  along.  We're  going  to  Church!'  and 
presently  a  dozen  or  twent)^  of  them  appeared 
in  the  saloon  and  became  very  attentive  hs- 
teners. 

"There  was  not  a  pleasanter  sei'vice  held  any- 
w^here  throughout  the  Church  than  ours,  I  feel 
sure,  far  off  as  we  are  in  a  desolate  country  and 
destitute  of  everything  which  was  Hke  a  Church 
building.  After  all,  how  little  in  the  way  of 
material  things  is  absolutely  essential  to  rehgious 
service  and  religious  enjoyment! 


70     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

"  'The  man  wliose  heart-joys  most  abound 
Is  richest  of  the  rich.' 

"But  a  word  more  about  these  miserable  men. 
It  is  from  them  and  such  as  they  that  the  Indians 
get  their  first  notions  of  what  we  white  men  are. 
The  laboring  man  they  first  see  is  not  the  honest 
farmer  who  each  year  finds  the  reward  of  his 
labor  in  the  increase  of  his  stock  and  the  im- 
provement of  his  farm  buildings,  but  the  half 
drunk  'roustabout'  who,  notwithstanding  his  hard 
work,  never  betters  his  condition.  Shall  we  won- 
der if  the  Indians  are  slow  to  adopt  the  white 
man's  ways?  Shall  we  be  impatient  if  the  new 
missionary  has  to  spend  a  year  or  so  in  earning 
for  himself  a  character?  And  when  the  world 
is  thus  pouring  the  dregs  of  civilization  into  the 
Indians'  cup  already  full  of  barbarism,  shall 
Christian  liberality  not  send  them  men  of  love 
who  will  offer  them  in  farms  and  schools  and 
churches  the  cup  of  Salvation?"     .     .     . 

The  steamers  were  not  always  so  good  as  the 
Far  West,  an  historic  craft  of  which  one  may 
learn  more  in  Mr.  J.  M.  Hanson's  Conquest  of 
the  Missouri.  From  another  steamer.  Bishop 
Hare  once  wrote  to  his  sister:  "It  is  not  very 
comfortable.  They  had  nothing  to  offer  me  but 
a  berth  in  the  clerk's  office  and  the  soiled  sheets 


A  PIONEER  IN  NIOBRARA  71 

of  its  pre\'ious  occupant!"  His  son  recalls  the 
discomforts  of  other  trips — the  tedious  waiting 
for  irregular  boats,  the  laborious  gaining  of 
forty  miles  a  day  against  the  current,  the  sharing 
of  staterooms  with  utter  and  none  too  cleanly 
strangers.  In  after  j^ears  Bishop  Hare  quoted 
with  relish  a  JNIaori  saying  apropos  of  crude  con- 
ditions and  the  different  ways  in  which  noble- 
minded  and  vulgar  missionaries  took  them: 
"Gentlemen-gentlemen  don't  mind;  pig-gentle- 
men mighty  particular."  There  were  frequent 
occasions  on  river  and  in  camp,  in  these  early 
days,  to  show  himself  one  of  the  "gentlemen- 
gentlemen." 

The  early  conditions  of  travel  on  land  were 
vividly  set  forth  at  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary 
of  Bishop  Hare's  Episcopate  by  one  who  fre- 
quently traveled  with  him,  the  Rev.  Joseph  W. 
Cook.     Let  him  tell  the  story: 

"The  Bishop  having  visited  all  of  the  seven 
or  eight  stations  where  regular  and  organized 
work  had  been  maintained  for  a  longer  or  shorter 
time,  and  which  could  be  reached  one  from  the 
other  in  a  very  few  hours;  and  having  studied 
their  condition,  work  and  needs,  now  prepared 
for  his  primary  visitation  up  the  river  to  the 
newly  established  Missions  and  the  wild  people 
among  whom  they  were  placed.  The  distance 
from  Yankton  Agency  to  the  nearest  was  one 


72     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

hundred,  and  to  the  farthest  three  hundred  or 
more  miles.  The  road  lay  back  from  the  river 
and  through  a  desolate  country  without  inhabit- 
ants, save  at  long  stages  where  a  couple  of  des- 
perate-looking men,  or  a  white  man  with  an  In- 
dian family  kept  the  'stage-ranche'  at  the  crossing 
of  a  creek  where  there  might  be  running  water, 
or  quite  as  often  only  a  water-hole  in  the  bed 
of  what  was  sometimes  a  torrent,  and  again  for 
many  months  without  water  save  as  described. 
The  'ranche,'  a  low  log  hut,  sometimes  two  placed 
near  together,  the  one  for  the  accommodation  of 
travelers,  the  other  for  the  occupants,  and  where 
the  wretched  food  was  prepared.  The  latter 
usually  consisted  of  poor  bacon  swimming  in 
grease,  and  soda  or  saleratus  biscuit,  often  as 
yellow  as  gold  and  smelling  like  soft  soap  from 
the  excess  of  alkali.  Sometimes  fortunately  it 
was  varied  by  potatoes,  often  wretchedly  cooked, 
and — luxury  of  luxuries — stewed  dried  apples, 
and  coffee  prepared  by  adding  a  little  fresh 
coffee  to  the  grounds  of  any  number  of  previous 
brewings,  and  in  a  pot  which  never  knew  a  cleans- 
ing. If  pretense  of  a  table  cloth  there  were,  it 
consisted  of  a  piece  of  worn  oil-cloth  mopped 
with  the  dish-clout  after  the  meal.  The  table 
was  used  as  a  lounging  place  or  card-table  by 
the  occupants  of  the  'ranche'  between  times. 
The  roofs  were  of  earth  supported  on  poles  whole 


A  PIONEER  IN  NIOBRARA  73 

or  split,  with  some  hay  under  the  earth.  By 
mice,  or  by  natural  gravitation,  or  by  force  of 
the  wind,  the  earth  often  came  peppering  down, 
and  when  it  rained  heavily  drops  or  streamlets 
of  mud  were  hard  to  escape.  The  floors  were 
usually  the  virgin  earth,  and  became  saturated 
with  filth,  and  the  abode  of  innumerable  fleas 
which  made  life  wretched  by  day,  or  until  the 
weary  traveler  sought  relief  in  bed.  Ah,  those 
beds!  the  acme  of  luxury!  so  sleep-inviting  to 
tired,  tormented  flesh!  A  dirty  tick  stuffed  with 
coarse  slough  hay,  unevenly  disposed,  no  sheets, 
blankets  or  quilts,  in  constant  use,  seldom  or 
never  aired  or  washed,  calico  or  muslin  pillow- 
cases, sometimes  very  dirty.  Not  to  show  him- 
self entirely  devoid  of  kindness  to  the  lower  an- 
imals, the  tired  traveler  usually  took  to  bed  with 
him  a  few  of  the  aforementioned  fleas.  But  he 
soon  found  there  were  other  orders  of  creation 
which  demanded  his  attention,  or  thirsted  for  his 
blood,  and  like  Solomon's  'daughter  of  the  horse- 
leech,' metaphorically  cried,  'Give,  give.'  And 
so  between  the  two  he  dozed,  and  tossed,  and  woke 
till  the  morning  released  him,  and  he  arose  more 
wretched  and  tired  than  he  had  lain  down.  He 
tastes  the  uniform  meal  and  starts  again  on  his 
weary  way. 

"The  Bishop's  vehicle  was  not  a  chariot,  nor 
yet  a  covered  carriage,  with  the  arms  of  his  see 


74     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

emblazoned  on  its  panels,  and  with  soft,  luxu- 
rious cushions,  and  scientifically  constructed 
springs  tenderly  guarding  the  body  from  jars 
and  jolts;  but  the  ordinary  light-wagon  of  the 
west,  with  no  cover,  and  with  common  cushions. 
In  such  how  often  and  long  has  he  fared  along 
under  the  canopy  of  heaven,  with  the  blazing  sun 
streaming  down  its  resistless  heat;  not  even  'a 
great  rock  in  a  weary  land,'  nor  even  a  spread- 
ing tree,  nor  even  a  juniper  bush  to  change  the 
monotony  of  the  scene  or  offer  a  temporary  rest ; 
rarely  even  a  gopher,  or  a  little  prairie  bird  sud- 
denly appearing  out  of  somewhere  and  as  sud- 
denly disappearing  into  nowhere,  to  attract  his 
attention  and  change  the  current  of  his  thoughts. 
Only  the  magnificent  distances  stretching  out  on 
every  side  which  seemed  like  Tennyson's  Brook 
to  'go  on  forever.'  And  then  imagine  what 
it  was  when  this  monotony  was  varied  by  the 
frequent  occurrence  in  this  part  of  the  country 
of  wind  and  dust  storms  which  often  last  for 
days;  sudden  downpours  of  rain,  often  accom- 
panied by  hail  frightful  to  man  and  beast;  dry 
water-courses  suddenly  turned  into  torrents  im- 
passable, wliich  may  not  subside  for  many  hours, 
and  no  refuge  of  any  sort  within  a  day's  travel, 
or  more.  The  Bishop  has  experienced  what 
many  of  us  maj^  not  have  known,  a  'drj'-  camp' 
and  a  'wet  camp' ;  the  former  trying  to  man  and 


A  PIONEER  IN  NIOBRARA  75 

the  worn-out  horses  because  not  a  drop  of  water 
can  be  found  to  slack  their  thirst  or  refresh  the 
travel-stained  hands  and  face;  and  the  latter  be- 
cause there  has  been  too  much,  and  the  forlorn 
traveler  and  all  his  'traps'  are  soaked  and  drag- 
gled, and  the  ground  and  herbage  where  he  is 
compelled  to  camp  is  wet  as  wet  can  be.  Fortu- 
nate is  he  who  under  the  circumstances  finds  his 
matches  dry,  and  succeeds  in  lighting  the  wet 
twigs  and  branches  he  may  be  able  to  find  for 
his  camp-fire  to  dry  his  garments  and  warm  his 
food.  Or  when  impelled  to  travel  through  such 
a  country  in  the  more  inliospitable  and  dangerous 
season  of  winter  with  its  frequent  very  low 
temperature,  snow  storms  and  frightful  'bliz- 
zards,' streams  filled  with  ice  to  ford,  or  to  ven- 
ture on  uncertain  ice,  or  pierced  and  pinched  with 
the  stinging  winds  which  never  lull,  from  which 
there  is  no  shelter,  and  against  which  fur  coats 
and  robes  are  not  always  a  protection.  Such 
items  as  these  are  necessary  to  fill  out  the  picture 
of  the  bodily  discomforts  and  perils,  nay,  suffer- 
ings, to  'fill  up  that  which  is  behind,'  in  carrying 
the  gospel  of  the  peace  of  God  to  the  heathen 
Dakotas." 

To  these  words  of  another  might  be  added 
many  descriptive  bits  from  Bishop  Hare's  letters 
and  reports.     In  this  place  a  single  passage  from 


76     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

a  letter  to  his  sister  will  throw  its  light  upon  both 
the  difficulties  and  the  humors  of  travel  in  these 
earliest  days: 

[To  Miss  Mary  H.  Hare.] 

"Yankton  City,  February  22,  1874. 
"My  Dear  Sister: 

"My  dating"  from  this  place  needs  explana- 
tion. You  may  remember  that  I  mentioned  in 
my  annual  report  the  enterprise  of  some  Santee 
Indians  who  had  given  up  all  their  tribal  privi- 
leges and  gone  oif  to  Flandreau  and  there  en- 
tered claims  and  formed  a  community  as  ordinary 
citizens  of  the  United  States.  They  are  about 
one  hundred  and  five  miles  northeast  of  this  town. 
They  have  sent  me  many  messages  asldng  me  to 
come  and  see  them  and  I  have  wished  ever  since 
I  came  out  here  to  grant  their  request. 

"Thursday  last,  I  started  from  the  Agency  to 
put  my  long-deferred  hope  into  execution.  A 
prosperous  day's  drive  brought  me  a  little  over 
sixty  miles  to  this  town  Thursday  evening.  Fri- 
day early  I  started  for  Flandreau,  being  some- 
what alarmed  on  starting  at  hearing  that  there 
was  a  good  deal  of  snow  a  little  farther  north. 
We  have  had  so  little  snow,  however,  and  the 
country  has  been  so  bare  for  weeks  and  weeks  that 
I  hardly  credited  the  stories  which  I  heard.  We 
had  not  gone  a  dozen  miles  north,  hov/ever,  when 


A  PIONEER  IN  NIOBRARA  77 

we  came  upon  the  snow,  which  increased  in  depth 
every  mile  we  drove  north  until  it  became  so 
heavy  that  it  was  almost  impassable.  No  one 
knows  the  oppressive  sense  of  helplessness  that 
comes  over  a  traveler  on  these  vast  plains  when 
he  finds  his  horses'  strength  giving  out,  and  the 
natural  warmth  of  his  body  departing,  and  re- 
members that  timber  and  therefore  fuel  there  is 
none  within  ten  or  twenty  miles.  To  add  to  my 
alarm  the  wind  began  to  rise  towards  twiHght, 
and  the  mercury  to  fall,  and  when  I  saw  a  house 
in  the  distance  and  drove  up  to  it  about  half-past 
eight  o'clock  I  could  hardlj^  have  been  more  re- 
lieved had  I  pulled  up  at  1345  Pine.  The  wind 
blew  a  gale  and  was  so  keen  that  it  seemed  that 
it  was  hopeless  to  face  it  and  live.  To  my  dis- 
may I  found  that  a  donation  party  had  assem- 
bled during  the  day  at  the  house  where  I  was  to 
find  entertainment,  which  was  that  of  a  Baptist 
minister.  The  building  was  literally  jammed. 
They  were  the  best-natured  people  in  the  world, 
but  Oh,  how  I  longed  for  rest  and  quiet!  The 
party  was  kept  up  till  about  half  past  ten  when 
the  company  began  to  disperse.  Hardly  a  half 
hour  had  elapsed,  however,  before  many  of  them 
came  back  again,  reporting  that  it  was  impossible 
to  face  the  storm  and  asking  accommodation  for 
the  night.  Twenty-seven  people  slept  there,  a 
few  in  beds,  more  in  chairs,  and  still  more  on  the 


78     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

floor.  Fortunately  I  was  treated  as  a  favored 
guest  and  had  a  bed  assigned  to  me  and  my  In- 
dian deacon  who  was  with  me.  The  wind  seemed 
to  drive  right  through  the  thin  boards  and  I  be- 
lieve my  ears  would  have  frosted  while  I  slept 
had  I  not  taken  the  precaution  to  go  to  bed  with 
my  fur  cap  drawn  down  over  my  ears  and  most 
of  my  face. 

"I  determined  that  it  would  be  foolhardy  to 
attempt  to  push  on  farther  and  therefore  re- 
traced my  steps  with  the  morning  light  and 
reached  Yankton  without  mishap  about  nine 
o'clock  last  night.  A  storm  of  snow  which  came 
on  during  the  night  and  has  prevailed  all  day 
admonishes  me  that  I  did  not  return  too 
soon."     .     .     . 

Thus  moving  about  "in  journeyings  often," 
it  was  primarily  as  the  minister  of  the  Gospel 
that  he  came  and  went.  To  the  impulses  of 
every  messenger  who  beheves  with  all  his  heart 
in  the  message  he  is  bearing,  Bishop  Hare  in  his 
travels  added,  specifically,  the  duties  of  a  pioneer 
in  Indian  Education,  and  of  an  official  or  semi- 
official representative  of  the  "Great  Father"  at 
Washington  and  of  the  whole  encroaching  man- 
ner of  life  known  as  "the  white  man's  way."  In 
each  of  these  three  capacities  he  needed  all  the 


A  PIONEER  IN  NIOBRARA  79 

confidence  his  course  soon  won  him  with  the  un- 
fortunate people  to  whom  he  ministered.  In 
each  capacity  he  gives  an  adequate  account  of 
himself. 


IV 

EELIGION,   SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT 

1873-1878 

As  a  minister  of  the  Gospel,  Bishop  Hare 
found  a  people  with  primitive  religious  in- 
stincts responsive  to  the  spiritual  elements  of 
Christian  belief.  Again  and  again  his  thought 
reverted  with  satisfaction  to  one  of  his  first 
journeys  and  the  meeting  with  a  chief  who,  re- 
ceiving him  courteously  inside  a  tepee,  listened 
unmoved  for  some  time  to  the  message  he 
brought.  "As  I  talked  on,  however,"  said 
Bishop  Hare,  "an  Indian  motioned  to  another 
near  bj^  to  lend  him  his  pipe.  Tobacco  pouch 
and  pipe  were  produced,  and  the  owner,  having 
filled  the  bowl  with  tobacco,  handed  the  stem  to 
his  companion  and  touched  a  live  coal  to  the  to- 
bacco. The  latter  took  a  puff  or  two,  and,  as 
the  smoke  was  wafted  by  the  heat  of  the  fire  to- 
Avards  the  sky,  lifted  the  pipe,  pointing  it  toward 
heaven,  and  simply  but  reverently  said,  'I  smoke 
to  God.'  "  Bishop  Hare  liked  also  to  tell  of  a 
chief  who  once  illustrated  for  him  the  religious 
^       80 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT     81 

courtesy  of  the  Sioux  by  saying,  "We  Indians 
have  no  paper  from  God  [no  Bible] ;  but  we 
pray  to  God;  and  when  we  think  we  have  some- 
thing that  will  please  Him,  like  a  piece  of  meat, 
or  skin,  we  lift  it  up  and  ask  Him  to  take  it  and 
have  pity  on  us."  Their  sense  of  chivalry  ap- 
pealed to  him,  their  vigor  of  thought  and  speech. 
"You  white  men  come  to  teach  us!"  said  one  of 
them.  "You  white  men  killed  the  Son  of  God. 
Our  people  never  did  anything  like  that."  Their 
mysticism  touched  him.  "These  Indians,"  he 
said,  in  the  course  of  an  early  speech  in  New 
York,  "generally  do  not  pass  the  age  of  sixteen 
or  seventeen  without  getting  in  some  way  or 
other  a  deep  sense,  a  vivid  sense,  of  some  par- 
ticular spirit  who  shall  be  their  patron  God.  It 
is  very  common  for  their  boys  of  that  age  to  go 
aside  and  seclude  themselves,  fast  days  and 
nights,  until  they  have  got  their  bodies  in  such 
condition  that  all  sorts  of  strange  hallucinations 
come  over  them.  Then  they  think  they  see  a 
muskrat  coming  to  them,  or  an  elk,  and  it  is  sing- 
ing a  song,  and  they  hear  the  muskrat  say  that 
if  in  the  hour  of  extremity  they  will  appeal  to 
him  and  sing  that  song,  this  spirit  will  always 
come  to  them  and  be  their  guardian  spirit.  Our 
boys  here  of  sixteen  or  seventeen  never — at  least 
I  did  not — fast  day  and  night  for  two  or  three 
days  to  get  a  keener  sense  of  the  invisible.     I 


83     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

say  these  people  are  an  intensely  religious  people. 
You  must  not  hand  them  over  to  mere  civiliza- 
tion." 

The  singing  muskrat  and  elk  are  characteristic 
figures  in  the  folk-lore  which  provided  the  Sioux 
with  their  religion.  The  primitiveness  of  it  all 
may  be  illustrated  by  a  Dakota  tradition  nar- 
rated with  much  earnestness  by  the  old  Chief 
Red  Cloud  to  members  of  the  Black  Hills  Com- 
mission visiting  the  Red  Cloud  Agency  in  Sep- 
tember, 1876.  It  was  printed  in  the  June,  1878, 
number  of  Anpao  or  TJie  Daybreak,  a  Dakota 
journal  established  by  Bishop  Hare.  If  the 
legend  seems  unduly  long,  its  significance  and 
this  opportunity  to  put  it  on  record  may  plead 
in  extenuation. 

"Red  Cloud  began  by  asking  Gen.  Gaylord, 
then  legal  adviser  for  the  Interior  Department, 
whether  he,  or  any  of  the  gentlemen  present, 
had  ever  heard  of  a  mule's  giving  birth  to  a 
young  one.  When  all  had  said  'no,'  with  some 
surprise  at  his  curious  inquiry,  he  replied  that 
neither  had  he  or  any  of  the  Dakotas  heard  of 
such  a  thing  yet,  but  that  after  we  were  all  dead 
it  would  occur,  and  with  that  event  the  Indian 
and  white  races  would  become  one  people,  and 
there  would  be  no  more  wars  or  trouble  between 
them,  for  they  would  then  both  be  alike  in  ap- 
pearance, interests,  customs,  habits,  etc.     God, 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT     83 

he  said,  has  particularly  favored  you  white  men 
in  all  respects,  and  given  to  the  Indian  that  which 
was  of  less  value,  yet  we  Indians  have  ever  lis- 
tened to  His  words,  and  been  content  with  our 
lot  as  assigned  to  us  by  Him,  while  you  white 
and  highly  favored  ones,  have  always  been  dis- 
obedient and  dissatisfied.  He  gave  to  the  whites 
the  land  of  the  East,  toward  the  rising  sun,  in 
which  direction  ever  we  must  look  for  light  and 
warmth,  and  from  whence  comes  most  that  must 
administer  to  life  and  happiness;  a  land  rich, 
productive,  beautiful  and  salubrious:  but  He 
gave  to  us  the  Western  land,  where  the  warmth 
of  day  is  extinguished,  and  darkness  rises  over 
the  world;  a  land  by  no  means  to  be  compared 
in  other  respects  with  yours,  sterile,  unlovely, 
and  waste.  Yet  the  Indian  has  ever  been  satis- 
fied with  the  country  in  which  God  put  him, 
loving  it  with  a  strong  love,  and  desiring  to  hold 
it  firmly,  but  never  to  push  out  from  it  into  that 
better  country  allotted  by  God  to  his  brother,  the 
white  man.  On  the  other  hand  the  wliite  man, 
highly  favored  as  he  was,  ever  rebellious  against 
God's  designs  for  him  and  discontented  with  his 
lot,  has  never  ceased  to  covet  his  red  brother's 
country,  and  turning  his  back  upon  the  light,  and 
leaving  behind  him  what  God  in  His  wisdom 
knew  to  be  the  best  of  the  world  and  so  had  given 
to  the  white  man  as  his  share,  has  always  tried 


84     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

to  crowd  the  Indian;  throwing  away  that  which 
was  best  and  his  own  by  Divine  appointment  to 
steal  that  which  was  worst  from  his  less  favored 
brother.  Again  God  sent  to  the  white  man  his 
only  Son  to  be  his  guide  and  teacher — the  best 
gift  possible  for  him  to  bestow — but  they  de- 
spised His  teachings  and  crucified  their  Saviour. 
To  the  Indians  God  sent  his  daughter — a 
w^oman.  She  came  on  earth  about  the  same  time 
His  Son  came  to  the  whites,  and  lived  and  taught 
among  a  tribe  of  the  Dakotas  on  the  upper 
JNIissouri.  They  loved,  respected  and  obeyed 
her,  and  have  ever  treasured  her  words  as  the 
words  of  God  to  them,  and  looked  forward  to 
the  fulfillment  of  her  prophecies  for  their  people. 
She  came  in  a  cloud  from  Heaven,  and  was  first 
seen  by  two  young  men  who  were  out  hunting 
buiFalo.  One  of  these  youths  w^as  \Tirtuous  and 
desired  only  what  was  pure  and  good,  the  other 
was  of  bad  character  and  evil  habits.  As  they 
went  over  the  prairie  far  from  their  homes,  they 
saw  at  a  short  distance  from  them  a  beautiful 
white  maiden  with  golden  hair  and  perfect  form. 
As  they  stood  filled  with  admiration  for  her 
graceful  form  the  bad  young  man  suggested 
that  this  was  an  opportunity  which  they  should 
not  lose  to  obtain  for  themselves  a  woman  of 
such  rare  beauty,  and  proposed  that  they  should 
seize  and  take  her  captive.     The  other  protested 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT     85 

strongly  against  such  a  wicked  act,  but  to  no 
purpose.  His  companion  rushed  forward  and 
was  about  to  lay  his  hand  upon  her  when  sud- 
denly with  a  noise  like  that  of  a  powerful  whirl- 
wind both  she  and  the  young  man  were  envel- 
oped in  a  cloud.  This  cloud  took  the  form  of 
a  cone,  beautiful  from  the  top  to  where  it  rested 
on  the  earth  ^^ith  colors  in  order:  at  the  top 
bright  scarlet,  then  blue,  yellow,  wliite  and  black. 
The  white  and  black  represent  the  white  race, 
and  the  others  are  the  colors  of  the  Indians. 
Scarlet  being  at  the  top  meant  that  it  was  the 
highest  order,  and  hence  the  Dakotas  prize  it 
above  all  the  rest  and  use  it  and  the  others  for 
painting  themselves,  ornamenting  their  pipes, 
blankets,  etc.  The  cloud  gradually  arose  and 
disappeared  from  sight  but  nothing  was  ever 
found  of  the  bad  young  man  but  his  bones  lying 
on  the  prairie  where  the  cloud  had  rested.  The 
maiden  told  the  good  young  man  that  she  would 
meet  him  at  a  certain  time  in  a  particular  lodge 
and  vanished  from  sight.  She  met  him  accord- 
ing to  this  appointment,  and  as  the  Dakotas  had 
no  books  she  gave  to  them  a  pipe  (which  they 
still  have)  that  his  people  might  remember  her 
words  and  the  future  of  the  Indian  race  which 
she  revealed  to  him  as  follows:  It  was  that  the 
Indian,  from  the  first  the  less  favored  race,  was 
to  be  the  first  to  pass  away,  or  rather  to  be  merged 


86     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

into  the  more  favored  one.  There  were  yet  ten 
generations  to  come,  and  at  the  end  of  those  gen- 
erations a  mule  should  give  birth  to  a  young  one, 
and  with  that  event  the  Indian  race  and  white 
race  should  become  one.  'Now,'  said  Red  Cloud 
(somewhat  in  error  as  to  his  chronology),  'seven 
of  those  generations  have  passed  away  and  but 
three  yet  remain  to  the  Indian.  This  is  the 
decree  of  God,  made  known  to  us  by  his  daugh- 
ter— you  have  not  the  power  to  alter  that  decree 
or  to  hasten  the  set  time — let  us  live  in  peace 
until  the  appointed  season,  and  then  the  Indians 
will  cease  as  a  race,  and  the  white  man  will  pos- 
sess both  them  and  all  else.'  " 

The  element  of  imagination  revealed  in  this 
legend,  joined  with  the  other  Indian  qualities 
already  mentioned,  made  the  soil  of  their  nature 
fertile  for  the  labors  of  a  man  with  just  such  a 
nature  as  Bishop  Hare's.  The  chivalric  and 
romantic  elements  in  him  responded  quickly  to 
corresponding  traits  in  the  Indians.  This 
response  was  always  under  the  control  of  a  strong 
element  of  common  sense.  His  own  conception 
of  his  duty  as  a  missionary  was  set  forth  clearly 
in  a  letter  which  he  wrote  in  1875  to  a  clergyman 
who  was  planning  to  join  his  force  of  workers: 
"You  are  about  to  enter  a  work  where  a  hopeful 
and  kindly  heart  and  a  high  sense  of  duty  are  the 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT     87 

first  requisites.  I  pray  you  to  make  the  posses- 
sion of  them  your  earnest  endeavor.  Your 
duties  will  be  to  teach  school  daily  and  to  prove 
yourself  a  friend  of  the  Indians  in  every  way, 
however  practical  and  humble,  which  interested 
ingenuity  can  devise."  Of  the  broader  aspect 
of  the  duties  of  his  clergy,  he  wrote,  in  extolling 
the  services  of  such  laymen  as  ]Mr.  William 
Welsh: 

"We  w^ant  'priests,'  if  that  word  conveys  to 
the  mind  the  idea  that  our  ministers  are  not 
merely  elected  officers,  but  bear  a  commission 
from  on  high ;  we  want  'j^riests,'  if  by  priests  are 
meant  not  only  men  whose  lips  keep  knowledge, 
but  men  who  delight  in  offering  the  sacrifice  of 
prayer  and  praise,  and  clothing  Divine  service 
with  holy  beauty.  But  we  want  them  not  if  b\" 
'priests'  are  meant  men  who  are  mere  clericals, 
who  do  not  wish  to  think  as  laymen  think;  men 
who  hate  lay  counsel  and  love  to  have  their  own 
way;  men  who,  according  to  a  living  English 
writer's  definition  of  a  priest,  are  'persons  neces- 
sary to  our  intercourse  with  God,  without  being 
necessary  or  beneficial  to  us  morallT//  Such 
priests,  we  venture  to  affirm,  MnW  find  in  the  end, 
in  this  age,  that  the  only  persons  w  ho  want  them 
are  those  whom  one  of  the  brethren  has  aptly 
termed  'silly  women  of  both  sexes.'  " 

To  his  own  company  of  priests  and  deacons. 


88     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

he  soon  added  the  orders  of  native  "Lay- 
Helpers"  and  "Catechists"  whose  duty  it  was  to 
prepare  the  catechumens  properly  for  the  rite 
of  baptism.  The  order  of  Catechists  was  a  delib- 
erate revival  of  an  institution  of  the  early  Church, 
adapted  equally  to  pagan  regions  of  the  new 
world  and  to  the  pagan  world  of  old.  A  letter 
to  his  Catecliists  in  1877  shows  with  what  pains- 
taking detail  he  mapped  out  the  functions  of  his 
subordinates.  This  carefulness  for  the  minutiae 
of  his  task  manifested  itself  in  a  multitude  of 
forms,  yet  never  blinded  him,  as  the  trees  may 
obscure  a  forest,  to  his  central  purpose  as  a 
teacher  and  preacher  of  the  Christian  religion. 
In  preaching  to  the  Indians  themselves  he  was 
fortunate  in  being  able  to  exercise  a  native  gift 
of  directness  and  homely  imagery  closely  akin  to 
the  Indians'  own  methods  of  expression.  Of  his 
words  to  them,  delivered  through  white  and 
native  interpreters,  there  are  of  course  but  frag- 
mentary records.  In  The  Daybreak  for  July, 
1878,  there  is  the  report  of  one  of  his  addresses, 
interpreted  by  the  Rev.  Luke  C.  Walker,  an 
Indian,  which  will  give  at  least  a  partial  impres- 
sion of  the  character  of  these  talks: 

"The  Jews,"  he  said,  "were  the  chosen  people 
of  God  in  the  midst  of  a  heathen  world.  They 
differed  from  other  nations  specially  in  three  par- 
ticulars, to-wit:  they  were  the  people  of  a  Book, 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT     89 

the  people  of  an  Oath,  and  a  Royal  people.  The 
people  of  a  Book  in  that  they  alone  had  the  Word 
of  God ;  the  people  of  an  Oath  in  that  they  were 
bound  by  an  Oath  to  keep  God's  law,  and  He  was 
bound  by  an  Oath  to  protect  them  in  it ;  a  Royal 
people  in  that,  through  their  relations  to  the  King 
of  kings,  all  things  in  His  kingdom  served  them, 
and,  in  proportion  as  they  themselves  were  faith- 
ful, administered  to  their  comfort.  So  of  all 
Christian  peoples,  and  so  too  now  of  those  Dako- 
tas  who  had  embraced  Christianity.  They  were 
coming  to  be  known  among  the  other  Dakotas 
as  their  people  of  a  Book.  They  were  different 
from  the  rest  in  that  they  had  books,  and  espe- 
cially the  Book  of  all  books,  God's  written  Word. 
They  also  were  a  people  of  an  Oath.  When 
urged  to  join  in  heathen  dances  and  customs  as 
of  old,  their  reply  was :  'No,  we  cannot,  we  have 
taken  an  oath  to  give  up  all  these  things  and 
follow  Christ.'  Their  baptismal  and  confirma- 
tion oaths  made  them  now  a  peculiar  people. 
They  too  were  growing  to  be  a  Royal  people. 
As  for  the  untaught  heathen,  the  sun  burned 
them  in  summer,  and  they  perished  from  cold 
and  nakedness  in  winter;  beasts  and  birds,  even 
their  own  and  only  means  of  support,  the  buffalo, 
fled  from  them,  and  the  earth  produced  nothing 
for  their  sustenance.  Christian  Indians,  on  the 
other  hand,  were  learning  to  provide  comfortable 


90     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

homes  and  warm  clothing  against  the  rigors  of 
the  climate;  beasts  grew  tame  at  their  hand  and 
served  them,  the  earth  began  to  bring  forth  her 
increase  in  abundance  for  their  support;  they 
were  a  Royal  people." 

Stronger  than  all  the  other  appeals  which  the 
Indians  made  to  Bishop  Hare  was  the  appeal  of 
their  essential  humanity.  In  June  of  1873  he 
wrote:  "The  sum  of  the  whole  matter  is  this:  the 
Indians  are  JNIen.  We  differ  from  them  in 
degree,  not  in  kind.  Exactly  where,  or  nearly 
where,  they  now  are,  we  once  were ;  what  we  are 
now,  they  will  (if  not  absolutely,  yet  according 
to  their  measure)  by  God's  blessing  yet  become. 
This  is  my  wish.  This  is  my  prayer.  This  is 
my  belief."  Concerning  the  unexpectedness  of 
their  offenses  against  good  order  he  wrote  in  later 
years:  "AU  this  is  thoroughly  Indian,  but  very 
thoroughly  Indian  because  completely  human." 
Because  so  human  they  deserved,  in  his  eyes,  the 
same  opportunities  for  development  that  make 
other  human  beings  what  they  are.  So  many  of 
the  opportunities  are  those  of  educational  train- 
ing that  the  problem  of  schools  immediately  pre- 
sented itself  with  the  force  already  indicated  in 
the  passage  quoted  from  the  "Reminiscences."  ^ 
The  Indians  were  all  as  children,  and  all  needed 

1  See  pp.  51-5:3. 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT     91 

what  good  schools  could  give  them.  But  there 
was  no  possibility  of  giving  it  to  any  but  the 
young.  Hence  the  early  concentration  upon  the 
conduct  of  Boarding  Schools.  One  good  reason 
to  hope  for  their  success  was  naively  expressed 
by  a  Christian  Indian,  formerly  "one  of  the  most 
exultant  w^arriors  of  the  dare-devil  sort,"  who 
came  to  Bishop  Hare  in  the  early  days  and  asked 
to  have  his  gi-andchildren  baptized.  "Are  their 
parents  Christians?"  asked  the  Bishop.  "No," 
said  the  Indian,  "they  are  not,  but  I  am."  He 
continued,  "I  have  noticed  that  old  antelopes  are 
very  wild  and  scary,  and  our  hunters  find  it  very 
hard  to  catch  them.  So  they  catch  the  young 
ones.  The  old  ones  come  to  seek  their  young, 
and  then  our  hunters  catch  them  too.  And  I 
thought,  if  you  would  take  and  baptize  these 
little  grandchildren  of  mine,  you  might  catch 
their  parents  too." 

The  passage  from  the  "Reminiscences"  in  the 
previous  chapter  will  have  shown  the  general 
ideas  controlHng  Bishop  Hare's  course  in  the 
important  matter  of  education.  It  is  possible 
here  somewhat  to  elaborate  this  showing  by  con- 
temporary glimpses  at  the  Boarding  School 
work.  The  school  at  the  Santee  Agency  under 
the  Rev.  S.  D.  Hinman  was  developed  in  less 
than  a  year  from  Bishop  Hare's  coming  to  his 
jurisdiction  into  Saint  Mary's  Boarding  School 


93     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

for  Girls.  At  the  Crow  Creek  Agency  another 
school  for  girls  was  soon  opened,  and  at 
Cheyenne  Agency  a  school  for  boys.  At  Yank- 
ton Agency,  which  immediately  became  the  Bish- 
op's residence,  he  established  Emmanuel  Hall,  a 
school  for  girls,  and — most  important  of  all, 
since  he  made  it  his  home  and  looked  to  it  pri- 
marily for  the  training  of  native  teachers  for 
the  Indians — St.  Paul's  School  for  Boys.  For 
all  of  these  institutions  there  was  abundant  need. 
Though  the  Indians  in  general  believed  that  their 
cliildren  would  develop  better  if  left  wholly  to 
themselves,  there  were  those,  besides  the  maker  of 
the  antelope  similitude,  who  saw  the  value  of  the 
new  opportunities  oflFered  to  them.  One  of  them 
was  reported  by  Bishop  Hare  as  saying:  "My 
friends,  all  animals  take  care  of  their  young. 
No — I  am  mistaken.  One  animal  does  not. 
It  is  the  mud-turtle.  It  comes  up  out  of  the 
water,  and  lays  its  eggs  in  the  sand,  and  then 
goes  back  to  the  water,  and  leaves  them  to  take 
care  of  themselves.  When  the  young  turtles 
are  hatched,  they  run  right  down  to  the  water. 
I  think  the  Great  Spirit  teaches  them.  Their 
parents  do  not. 

"We  Dakotas,  my  friends,  are  those  mud-tur- 
tles. We  are  unlike  other  men.  We  have  not 
taught  our  children.  The  Great  Spirit  has 
taught  them  direct,  I  think.     Otherwise  they 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT     93 

could  not  have  lived  at  all.  And  now  I  think 
that  as  the  Great  Spirit  has  been  so  kind  to  us 
when  we  were  foolish,  we  ought  to  be  very  thank- 
ful to  him  and  try,  henceforth,  to  teach  our  chil- 
dren wisdom  as  weU  as  we  can." 

The  wisdom  offered  to  them  in  Bishop  Hare's 
boarding-schools — long  before  the  principles  of 
industrial  training  had  won  their  present  repute 
— ^was  that  which  they  needed  most  for  everyday 
living.  "The  ideas  which  governed  me,"  he 
wrote,  "in  laying  out  the  whole  boarding-school 
work  of  the  jurisdiction,  were,  that  the  schools 
should  be  plain  and  practical  and  not  calculated 
to  engender  fastidious  tastes  and  habits,  which 
would  make  the  pupils  unhappy  in,  and  imfitted 
for,  the  lowly  and  hard  life  to  which  their  people 
are  called;  that,  as  the  Indians  have  not  been 
accustomed  to  labor,  the  school  training  should 
be  such  as  would  not  only  cultivate  their  intellect, 
but  also  develop  their  physical  functions  and 
teach  them  to  do  well  the  common  acts  of  daily 
humble  life."  The  carrying  of  Christian  influ- 
ences back  into  their  uncivilized  homes  was  of 
course  a  fundamental  part  of  the  plan. 

A  letter  written  within  nine  months  of  the 
beginning  of  his  work  tells  with  what  energy 
the  useful  service  of  St.  Paul's  School  was  insti- 
tuted : 


94.     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

[To  Miss  Mary  Abbot  Emery.] 
"Yankton  Agency,  Dak.,  Jan.  5, 1874. 
"My  Dear  Miss  Emery: 

"Very  happily  I  am  able  to  begin  a  letter 
about  St.  Paul's  Boarding  School  on  this  Feast 
of  the  Epiphany,  for  it  has  all  along  been  my 
hope  in  planning  the  school  and  in  putting  it 
into  operation,  that  it  would  prove  to  the  wilder 
tribes  about  us  through  the  reports  of  travelers 
what  the  heaven-given  star  was  to  men  of  old, 
who  sat  in  darkness,  a  bright  interesting  attract- 
ive sight  awakening  from  their  slumber  and 
starting  them  off  to  find  the  Light. 

"Now  for  some  report  of  the  School  and  its 
workings : 

"The  School  building  is  completed,  furnished 
throughout,  and  occupied,  and  has  been  for  three 
or  four  weeks.  I  say  completed,  not  abso- 
lutely, for  the  attic  is  not  yet  fitted  up  for  a 
second  dormitory  as  I  intend  that  it  eventually 
shall  be,  nor  is  the  woodwork  of  the  building 
painted,  but  all  is  done  that  it  was  purposed  to 
do  at  first,  my  object  being  to  keep  the  fii'st 
expense  down  to  the  lowest  figure  possible. 

"The  building  is  of  chalk  stone  and  built 
rather  with  view  to  comfort,  economy  and  prac- 
tical use  than  vAih.  an  eye  to  beauty.  Beauty, 
especially  with  a  stone  building  and  in  this  far- 
oiF  place,  is  a  costly  luxury.    All  I  claim  for  it  is 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT     95 

that  it  is  substantial,  well  adapted  to  its  end,  and 
a  structure  such  as  a  practical  business  man  if  he 
had  given  largely  towards  its  erection  would  not 
be  ashamed  to  see. 

"Its  situation  is  commanding,  being  upon  the 
slope  of  the  bluff  towards  the  JNIissouri  River 
and  high  above  all  the  other  buildings  about. 

"It  is  a  little  over  forty  feet  front,  fifty-six 
feet  deep,  with  a  wing  on  the  w^est  twenty-eight 
feet  by  sixteen.  There  is  a  fine  cellar,  eight  feet 
high,  cemented,  and  dry  as  a  second  floor  room 
in  New  York,  under  the  whole  house,  so  good 
indeed  that  it  will  be  possible  to  partition  por- 
tions of  it  off,  when  that  course  becomes  neces- 
sary, for  a  dining-room  and  kitchen  for  the 
scholars. 

"The  attic  has  a  sloping  roof,  but  could  be 
readily  fitted  up  so  as  to  accommodate  ten  double 
beds.  The  building  is  divided  into  two  parts  in 
both  the  first  and  second  stories  by  a  hall  which 
runs  the  extreme  length  from  the  front  to  the 
rear.  The  rooms  on  the  right  of  the  hall  as  one 
enters  are  for  the  Mission  family  and  for  guests. 
On  the  first  floor,  first  the  parlor,  then  my  bed- 
room, then  my  study,  then  Rev.  ]Mr.  Cook's 
bedroom,  and  last  the  office,  where  Mr.  Cook 
is  on  hand  to  receive  the  Indians  who  come  by 
the  dozen  during  each  day  to  complain,  to 
consult,  to  seek  help   and  to  chat,  and  others 


96     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

reserved  for  the  use  of  visitors  and  for  other 
purposes. 

*'0n  the  left  of  the  hall  on  the  first  floor  are 
the  schoolroom,  the  dining-rooms,  one  for  the 
Dakotas,  and  one  for  the  family,  and  the  kitchen. 
Upstairs,  corresponding  to  these  rooms,  is  a  large 
dormitory,  part  of  which  is  partitioned  off  for 
the  Niobrara  Storeroom  until  a  better  place  can 
be  had.  We  began  operations  by  admitting  five 
picked  boys  a  little  over  two  weeks  ago  and  since 
then  have  admitted  four  more.  There  was  no 
lack  of  apphcants  for  admission,  but  I  Hmited 
the  number  because  only  a  portion  of  the  sheets 
and  pillow  cases,  shirts  and  drawers  prepared 
for  us  by  friends  at  the  East  had  arrived,  and 
also  and  chiefly  because  I  thought  that  the  school 
had  better  be  a  growth  than  a  sudden  creation, 
in  order  that  those  who  are  in  authority  in  it 
might  become  accustomed  to  their  duties,  and 
in  order  that  I  might  imbue  a  few  with  the  spirit 
and  drill  them  in  the  habits  which  I  wish  to 
prevail  in  the  School  and  thus  secure  a  power 
ready  at  hand  to  influence  for  good  those  who 
will  be  admitted  a  little  later.  The  plan  has 
worked  admirably  thus  far,  and  I  would  not  have 
believed  that  the  first  two  weeks  of  our  experi- 
ment could  bring  so  few  frictions  and  annoy- 
ances. The  boys  admitted  are  all  thus  far  Yank- 
tons.     I    expect    to    have    soon    some    Poncas 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT     97 

(among  them  there,  one  of  the  three  children 
who  were  adopted  by  the  Mission  during  the 
time  Mr.  Dorsey  and  his  mother,  Mrs.  Stanforth, 
were  at  Ponca)  and  some  Santees,  whom  I  have 
not  been  able  to  unite  hitherto,  on  account  of 
smallpox. 

"Of  the  boys  admitted,  one  is  twelve  years  old, 
one  thirteen,  three  fourteen,  two  fifteen,  one 
seventeen,  and  one  is  twenty-one. 

"My  plan  is  to  make  the  School  so  far  as  possi- 
ble self-serving,,  i.  e.,  to  make  the  boys  take  care 
of  themselves  and  of  the  house.  For  this  pur- 
pose they  are  divided  into  three  squads  and  to 
each  squad  is  assigned  for  one  week  one  particular 
department  of  work.  One  squad  is  the  Dormi- 
tory Squad,  whose  duty  is  to  make  the  beds  and 
keep  the  dormitory  and  some  other  rooms  in 
order.  Another  squad  is  the  Table  Squad,  whose 
duty  it  is  to  set  the  table  and  wash  the  dishes,  etc. 
A  third  is  the  Outdoor  Squad,  whose  province  it 
is  to  bring  wood,  run  errands,  go  for  milk,  etc. 
Each  day  when  the  several  squads  have  dis- 
charged their  respective  duties,  they  all  unite  and 
work  at  leveling  and  cleaning  up  the  grounds, 
and  it  is  a  pleasant  sight  to  see  them  busy  with 
pick,  shovel,  and  wheelbarrows  and  merry  all  the 
while  as  larks.  They  take  to  work  better  than 
I  dared  expect.  Perhaps  novelty  gives  the  task 
a  charm.     By  ten  o'clock  all  manual  work  for 


98     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

the  morning  is  over  and  the  boys  go  into  school 
for  two  hours.  Then  dinner  and  recess  till  two 
o'clock,  then  work  again  till  three,  then  school  till 
five.  God  bless  the  work  thus  happily  begun 
and  prepare  us  who  are  here  and  those  who  help 
us  at  the  East  for  what  must  come — some  trials 
and  discouragements!" 

Bishop  Hare's  son  recalls  a  visit  to  his  father 
at  the  School,  where  he  arrived  even  before  the 
pupils  were  received.  "The  plaster  in  it  had  not 
dried;  there  was  no  means  of  heating  it  except 
by  sheet-iron  stoves  placed  in  each  room.  The 
only  fuel  was  cottonwood,  which  burned  like 
tinder,  and  made  the  stove  red-hot  for  half  an 
hour  and  then  rapidly  died  down  unless  refed. 
On  going  to  bed  at  night  the  room  was  com- 
fortably warm.  On  arising  in  the  morning  its 
temperature  was  often  below  zero  and  the  damp- 
ness in  the  plaster  had  turned  into  frost  on  the 
walls.  When  the  cottonwood  fire  got  fairly 
started,  this  moisture  would  trickle  down  the 
walls.  This  went  on  for  many  days  and  nights. 
As  all  food  had  to  be  hauled  by  wagon  for  sixty 
miles,  it  was  most  limited  in  variety  and  none 
too  good.  The  only  water  obtainable  was  that 
of  the  muddy  ^Missouri  River  flowing  at  the  rate 
of  four  miles  an  hour  under  eighteen  inches  of 
ice,  and  it  was  customary  to  send  a  wagon  loaded 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT     99 

with  barrels  to  the  river,  to  cut  a  hole  in  the  ice, 
fill  the  barrels  with  water,  and  drag  them  about 
half  a  mile  up  the  bluff  to  the  School.  There 
was,  therefore,  no  water  for  ordinary  bathing 
and  very  little  for  any  other  purpose.  The  cold 
was  so  great,  I  remember,  that  even  the  chickens, 
which  were  allowed  to  roost  in  the  stable  where 
the  horses  were,  all  lost  their  combs  through  frost- 
bite. At  this  time  the  Indians  were  stiU  dis- 
posing of  their  dead  on  scaffolds,  and  erected  one 
not  far  from  the  schooUiouse,  upon  which  they 
laid  a  corpse,  and  then  killed  a  horse  underneath 
in  order  that  the  warrior  might  have  something 
to  ride  on  in  the  Happy  Hunting  Grounds. 
Meat  was  obtained  by  killing  a  steer,  quarter- 
ing, and  then  laying  it  at  the  foot  of  the  hay- 
stack where  it  remained  frozen  for  as  many  days 
or  weeks  as  passed  before  it  was  devoui'ed." 

Writing  to  the  Secretary  and  General  Agent 
of  the  Indian  Commission  in  New  York,  Bishop 
Hare  himself  described  the  effects  of  a  winter 
storm  in  his  new  residence: 

[To  Rev.  R.  C.  Rogers.] 

"Yankton  Agency,  Jan.  8,  1875. 
.     .     .     "We  have  now  a  terrific  storm  upon 
us;  the  mercury  23°  below  zero;  wind  blowing 
almost  a  hurricane.     We  quail  before  it  in  our 


100     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

stone  building.  God  pity  the  poor  Indians  in 
their  tepees !  .  .  .  The  boys  while  asleep  in- 
stinctively hugged  themselves,  heads  and  all,  un- 
der the  clothes,  and  I  believe  slept  through  it 
all.  The  Dormitory  looked  this  morning  more 
like  a  snow-bank  than  a  bedroom. 

"On  the  sounding  of  the  'Rising  Bell'  the  boys 
were  lifted  from  their  snowy  beds  and  carried 
to  the  other  end  of  the  room,  from  which  they 
scampered  away,  without  much  regard  to  appear- 
ances, crying  out,  'Osnido!  it's  very  cold!'  to  the 
warm  wash-room  on  the  floor  below. 

"Our  water  privileges  hardly  deserve  the 
name.  ^Vhen  the  water  for  this  large  household 
of  fifty  people  has  to  be  dipped  in  buckets  from 
the  river  and  hauled  in  barrels  a  quarter  of  a 
mile,  while  the  temperature  is  so  low,  that  which 
is  water  one  moment  is  (to  exaggerate  a  little) 
ice  the  next.  The  boys  who  constitute  the  Water 
Squad  have  done  their  duty  nobly  throughout 
this  whole  cold  term  of  ten  days,  during  which 
the  mercury  has  each  morning  ranged  from  5° 
to  23°  below  zero.  The  Wood-Chopping  Squad 
deserves  equal  credit.  Our  consumption  of  fuel 
in  this  school  and  in  Emmanuel  Hall  near  by  is 
enormous.  The  boys  have  to  cut  all  the  wood  in 
the  open  air  and,  even  with  the  violent  exercise 
of  wood-chopping,  it  is  a  question  often  whether 
they  can  generate  as  much  heat  as  old  Boreas 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT      101 

can  cold.  Of  course  we  save  them  all  we  can, 
and  they  are  required  to  do  nothing  which 
the  head  master  and  other  teachers  do  not  join 
in. 

"I  went  down  to  Eromanuel  Hall  this  morn- 
ing soon  after  breakfast  to  see  how  they  fared 
there.  The  storm  had  evidently  been  playing 
hide  and  seek  through  the  old  church  and  as  if 
to  put  the  best  face  on  its  sacrilege  had  left  as 
the  only  token  of  its  pranks  in  holy  places  the 
most  delicate  festoons  and  tracery  work  of  snow 
as  light  as  gossamer.  Emmanuel  Hall,  which 
adjoins  the  church  on  the  west,  being  new  and 
well  built,  had  stood  the  storm  pretty  well,  but 
the  force  of  the  driving  wind  manages  to  sift 
the  snow,  which  in  this  country  is  as  light  as  a 
feather  and  as  fine  as  dust,  through  cracks  and 
crannies  which  are  so  small  that  the  eye  cannot 
easily  discern  them,  and  therefore  though  I  say 
that  Emmanuel  Hall  stood  the  storm  pretty  well, 
I  do  not  mean  to  deny  that  the  snow  was  gath- 
ered together  out  of  some  of  the  more  exposed 
rooms  by  the  shovelful.'* 

In  quite  another  vein,  the  vein  in  which  he 
spoke  to  children  and  to  Indians,  is  the  follow- 
ing letter.  Though  addressed  to  younger  read- 
ers, it  tells  so  much  of  the  life  and  work  of  the 
early  boarding  schools  that  it  should  not  be  lost. 


102     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

"Yankton  Agency,  Dak.,  Nov.  30,  1877. 
"To  the  Children  of  the  Church,  and  Other  Ben- 
efactors of  Boarding  Schools  in  the  Mission- 
ary Jurisdiction  of  Niobrara. 
"My  Dear  Friends:  It  is  Thanksgiving 
Day.  We  have  had  a  bright  and  pleasant  Fall, 
but  to-day  is  terrible.  The  mercury  is  down  to 
a  few  degrees  above  zero.  The  ^\ind  has  blown  a 
gale  for  two  days  and  two  nights,  and  it  blows 
a  gale  still.  It  rattles  the  windows.  It  howls 
around  the  corners  of  the  house.  It  scours  the 
gravel  from  our  walks.  It  has  parched  the 
earth  so  that  it  has  cracked  like  the  mud  at  the 
bottom  of  a  dried-up  pond  in  the  heat  of  sum- 
mer. The  Missouri  River  even,  one  of  the 
longest  of  rivers,  which  was  a  great  rushing  tor- 
rent a  mile  wide  last  June,  has  left  almost  all 
its  bed  uncovered,  sunk  into  its  lowest  channel 
and  put  on  a  coating  of  ice,  as  if  it  had  done 
airing  itself  and  was  prudently  wrapping  itself 
close  in  a  white  blanket  for  a  long  winter  night's 
sleep.  Look  which  w^ay  one  will,  but  one  living 
creature  is  to  be  seen,  a  solitary  Indian  who  has 
dismounted  from  his  saddle,  and  is  running  ahead 
of  his  horse,  pulling  him  by  the  bridle,  and 
stamping  his  feet  to  keep  himself  warm. 

"But  I  am  not  thinking  of  the  biting  wind 
which  howls  outside.  I  am  sitting  in  my  room 
and  have  just  fallen  into  a  reverie.     And  in  my 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT      103 

reverie,  I  seemed  to  myself  to  have  a  vision  of 
all  the  young  people  whom  I  love — the  children 
who  have  written  me  letters  and  cheered  my 
heart,  the  children  of  the  Sunday-schools  and 
Bible-classes  which  I  have  addressed,  and  the 
cliildren  who  support  Scholarships  in  my  Board- 
ing Schools — and  from  the  East  and  West  and 
North  and  South,  they  all  seemed  to  come  troop- 
ing toward  me.  I  forgot  all  about  the  wind  and 
cold,  so  distinctly  did  I  seem  to  see  their  smiling 
faces,  and  so  warm  did  my  heart  grow  as  their 
bright  eyes  seemed  to  say,  'Some  of  us  have  never 
seen  you;  but  we  all  love  you.  Bishop,  for  your 
work's  sake.'  Closer  and  closer  they  seemed  to 
press  about  me,  when  suddenly  I  was  roused  from 
my  reverie  by  hearing  them  say,  'Bishop,  tell  us 
all  about  your  JMission  to  the  Indians.'  By  all 
means,  dear  children.  Not  only  tell  you  about 
it,  but  show  it  to  you. 

"The  bell  is  ringing  for  our  Thanksgiving  din- 
ner. Suppose  you  and  I  all  go  down  to  the 
dining-room  together.  What  do  we  see?  A 
long  table;  on  the  table  turkey,  cranberry-sauce, 
and  whatever  good  tilings  our  thoughtful  lady 
helpers  have  been  able  to  get  together;  and 
around  the  table  an  eager  throng.  At  one  end 
the  missionary,  Mr.  Cook ;  at  the  other  the  head- 
master of  St.  Paul's  School,  Mr.  Young.  At 
the  middle,  on  one  side,  the  Bishop,  with  the 


104     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

house-mother.  Miss  Ives,  on  his  right,  and  her 
associate.  Sister  Mary,  on  the  left;  opposite, 
Raeburn,  a  teacher;  while  everpvhere  else  are 
crowding,  yet  orderly,  tliirty-one  Indian  boys,  all 
of  them  empty  yet  big  with  expectation.  I  need 
not  tell  you  how  the  dinner  disappeared.  You 
know  yourselves  from  experience  how  it  is  with 
Thanksgiving  dinners. 

*'But  now  the  dinner  is  done,  and  I  call  the 
whole  party  to  order,  and  address  the  boys  as 
follows:  'Boys,  when  white  people  have  a  feast 
like  this,  they  think  of  their  friends  who  are 
absent.  Let  us  tliink  now  of  our  absent  fathers 
and  mothers,  and  brothers  and  sisters,  and  our 
friends  and  benefactors,  and,  as  we  do  so,  let 
all  of  us  take  our  cups  into  our  hands,  and  pray 
God  to  fill  their  cups  with  peace  and  happiness.' 
Every  boy  seizes  liis  stone-china  mug,  lifts  it, 
and  a  smile  on  every  face  and  a  hearty  'How! 
How!'  from  every  lip,  tell  that  the  white  Bishop's 
heart  and  the  Indian's  heart  have  flowed  together. 
'Now,  boys,  liDe  sit  in  a  warm  room,  and  have 
had  a  good  dinner;  let  us  remember  how  many 
to-day  are  cold  and  hungry;  how  many  old 
Indian  women  are  shivering  in  their  wigwams 
as  they  hold  their  long  thin  fingers  to  the  fire. 
Sha'n't  we  think  of  them,  and  pray  God  to  think 
of  them?'  A  shadow  passes  over  their  faces,  for 
they  have  known  what  hfe  in  the  wigwam  in 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT      105 

bitter  weather  is,  and  they  respond  to  my  senti- 
ment in  a  subdued  'How!'  And  so  toast  after 
toast  is  given,  enthusiasm  kindles,  and  in  the 
conviction  that  our  boys  are  happy,  the  mission- 
ary, the  headmaster,  the  Bishop  (and  even  our 
lady-helpers!)   are  boys  again. 

"Now  how  much  more  attractive  Indians  are 
when  you  love  them  than  when  you  fight  them! 
How  much  better  it  is  to  give  them  Christian 
education  than  to  let  them  grow  up  wild  to 
entrap  and  massacre  our  soldiers,  as  these  boj^s' 
fellow-countrymen  did  with  Custer's  gallant 
troop !  I  have  heard  it  said,  'Indians  were  made 
to  be  food  for  powder.'  But  has  not  our 
Thanksgiving  dinner  clearly  shown  that  turkeys 
were  made  to  be  food  for  them? 

"But  a  scene  like  this  wliich  I  have  described 
will  gladden  your  eyes  at  a  good  many  other 
schools  besides  St.  Paul's.  Let  us  hurry  in 
imagination  dowTi  to  Emmanuel  Hall  ( a  few  hun- 
dred yards  off)  and  look  in  upon  Mrs.  Draper 
and  Miss  Hicks  and  their  flock  of  twenty  girls ; 
and  then  off  to  St.  JNIarj'^'s  Boarding  School 
among  the  Santees  (it  is  a  day's  journey,  but  in 
imagination  we  can  make  it  in  a  trice)  and  salute 
Miss  Kerbach  and  Miss  Norris  and  their  score 
of  Santee  girls;  and  then  five  days'  travel  up 
the  Missouri  River  (stopping  for  a  moment  to 
say,  'How  d'ye  do!'  to  Mr.  Burt,  whom  we  shall 


106     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

find  unpacking  boxes  containing  articles  for  tlie 
Boarding  School  which  lie  expects  to  open  in  a 
few  weeks)  to  the  Yanktonnais  Indians,  where 
we  shall  greet  Mrs.  Duigan  and  her  school  of 
twenty-four,  'all  so  happy,'  she  writes  me,  'that 
I  sometimes  think  that  some  great  trouble  will 
come  to  us.' 

"Now  for  another  journey,  and  in  three  days 
we  find  ourselves  at  one  of  our  most  distant  Mis- 
sions with  IVIr.  and  JNIrs.  Swift  and  JNIiss  Bell, 
near  the  Cheyenne  River  Agency.  Want  of 
accommodations  keeps  their  school  down  to  ten. 
Indeed,  want  of  accommodation  keeps  every 
part  of  their  work  down.  Barely  have  I  par- 
ticipated in  services  more  moving  than  those  I 
have  joined  in  this  Mission.  To  confirm  twenty- 
four  adults  on  a  Sunday  morning,  as  I  have  done 
here,  among  some  of  the  wildest  tribes  of  Sioux, 
and  in  the  afternoon  see  a  whole  congregation, 
young  and  old,  a  cliief  and  some  head-men  stand 
up  to  answer  together  some  of  the  questions  of 
the  Catechism,  is  enough  to  make  the  coolest  lift 
up  his  hands  and  exclaim,  'What  hath  God 
wrought !' 

"I  wish  that  there  were  time  for  me  to  take 
you  on  a  visiting  tour  to  all  our  churches  as  well 
as  to  our  schools,  for,  after  all,  our  Boarding 
Schools  are  but  a  small  portion  of  our  work ;  but 
I  must  bring  tliis  long  letter  to  a  close.     .     .     . 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT     lOT 

And  before  I  say  Good-by,  let  me  tell  you  that 
since  I  began  to  write  this  letter  (in  which  I 
have  been  several  times  interrupted)  the  evening 
has  been  stealing  on,  the  gale  has  subsided,  quiet 
reigns,  and  the  stars  are  shining. 

"Your  very  grateful  and  affectionate  friend, 
"William  H.  Hare, 
"Missionary  Bishop  of  Niobrara/' 

A  year  after  this  letter  was  written  Bishop 
Hare  told  something  of  the  efforts  the  Indian 
boys  themselves  made  to  enter  St.  Paul's  School. 
He  had  recently  met  on  the  prairie  two  boys 
trudging  from  their  homes  at  Santee,  thirty-five 
miles  away.  A  white  boy  driving  with  him — in- 
deed his  own  son,  then  about  fourteen  years  old — 
exclaimed  that  he  would  never  walk  thirty-five 
miles  to  go  to  boarding-school,  and  Bishop  Hare 
admitted  that  as  a  boy  no  more  would  he  have 
done  it.  But  another  Indian  boy  made  his  way 
on  foot  to  St.  Paul's  from  Flandreau,  a  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  away,  and  two  others  from 
Cheyenne  Agency,  a  distance  of  two  hundred 
miles. 

With  "all  outdoors"  as  home  to  run  away 
to,  there  were  some  at  first  who  fled  from  the 
restraints  of  a  routine  life.  There  were  diffi- 
culties, too,  with  parents;  some  half  or  wholly 
hostile;  others  so  friendly  that  they  made  them- 


108     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

selves  a  nuisance  by  sitting  about  with  loaded 
rifles  on  their  knees  to  guard  the  teachers  against 
possible  attacks;  all  ignorant  of  the  rights  of 
privacy  and  walking  unbidden  into  any  room 
the  teachers  might  occupy.  But  one  by  one  the 
difficulties  were  overcome.  A  wise  accommo- 
dation of  means  to  ends  appears  in  an  account 
of  an  early  commencement  at  St.  Paul's  where 
the  "meritorious,"  the  "very  meritorious,"  the 
"most  meritorious"  pupils  received  as  prizes 
respectively  a  pair  of  chickens,  a  pig,  and  a 
heifer  apiece,  to  be  held  conditionally  until  the 
school  course  was  finished,  and  to  become  their 
absolute  property  when  they  should  graduate 
with  the  certificate  given  to  those  who  have  won 
their  teachers'  commendation.  In  manifold 
ways  the  basis  was  laid  in  the  work  of  the  board- 
ing-schools for  an  ultimate  success  with  the  mis- 
sion at  large  which  must  have  seemed  in  those 
days  of  small  beginnings  hardly  more  tangible 
than  a  dream. 

It  was  an  immediate  observation  by  Bishop 
Hare  on  going  into  the  Indian  country  that  the 
missionaries  had  it  "as  their  lot  to  see  attention 
on  the  qui  vive  when  they  speak  of  rations,  and 
flagging  when  they  tell  of  the  Bread  which 
endureth  unto  eternal  life."  Eager  as  he  was  to 
do  something  for  their  souls  and  minds,  their 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT      109 

bodies  were  the  object  of  their  own  chief  concern. 
"The  idea  seized  them,"  wrote  Bishop  Hare  in 
his  second  Annual  Report,  "that  the  Chief  Holy 
Man  (as  they  call  the  Bishop)  has  the  ear  of  the 
Great  Father  (i.  e.  the  President) ,  of  whom  they 
have  heard  as  the  wonderful  chief  who  Hves  in  a 
big  white  house  in  Washington  and  sends  Indians 
immense  supplies  of  flour  and  beef."  Whether 
called  upon  to  represent  the  government  offi- 
cially, as  he  sometimes  was,  or  standing  inevitably 
as  the  most  conspicuous  exponent  of  white  civili- 
zation among  the  Sioux,  he  soon  became  known, 
both  to  Indians  and  to  whites,  as  the  Indian's 
friend.  "We  all  remember,"  he  once  wrote, 
"when  it  was  thought  by  some  of  our  emigrant 
population  an  offense  for  which  a  man's  head 
should  be  broken — that  he  undertook  to  teach  a 
negro.  It  is  a  similar  offense  in  the  eyes  of 
some  people  out  on  the  frontier  to  undertake 
to  befriend  an  Indian."  To  be  their  champion 
when  he  undertook  their  cause  was  almost  to 
stand  in  the  place  of  a  Robert  Gould  Shaw — 
before  the  obloquy  was  lost  in  glory. 

In  the  first  year  of  his  work  in  Niobrara  he 
saw  that  if  the  missionary  body  which  he  repre- 
sented was  to  nominate  certain  Indian  Agents, 
their  acts  should  fall  under  his  immediate  super- 
vision, since  he  was  "the  man  on  the  ground." 
It  was  like  him,  therefore,  to  ask  the  Indian 


110     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

Commission  of  the  Church  to  extend  his  power 
in  this  direction.  "I  could  not  have  laid  out  for 
myself,"  he  wrote  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Com- 
mission, December  29,  1873,  "any  work  from 
which  my  soul  recoils  more  than  that  which  I 
have  sketched.  I  have  more  than  once  depre- 
cated the  suggestion  that  it  fell  naturally  to  my 
position.  But  experience  has  taught  me  that  if 
the  Church  is  to  do  her  work  among  the  Indians 
*UDell,  I  must  not  only  be  willing  to  receive  such 
duty  from  the  Executive  Committee,  but  must 
ask  it  of  them."  All  this  was  long  before  the 
days  of  the  Indian  Rights  Association,  and  it 
may  well  be  imagined  how  advantageous  to  the 
Indians  it  was  to  have  a  friend  on  the  spot  so 
vitally  interested  in  their  fair  treatment  by  the 
agents. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  Government  recog- 
nized the  value  of  such  fair-minded  service  as 
he  was  ready  to  render.  In  January  and  Feb- 
ruary of  1874  affairs  at  Red  Cloud  Agency  took 
on  an  alarming  aspect.  An  Indian  war  was 
feared.  Bishop  Hare,  to  quote  his  own  words, 
"was  invited  by  the  Government  to  visit,  ^dth 
three  others,  the  disturbed  district,  pacify  the 
Indians  if  possible,  and  make  such  recommenda- 
tions as  should  seem  to  us  desirable,  assurance 
being  given  us  that  any  policy  we  might  agree 
upon  would  be  carefully  followed  by  th^  Qq» 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT     111 

ernment."  In  the  statement  from  which  these 
words  are  copied  it  also  appears  that  Bishop 
Hare  made  it  a  rule  never  to  receive  any  per 
diem  or  other  pay  for  the  time  and  labor  spent 
at  the  request  of  the  Government,  and  never  to 
act  for  the  Government  except  for  Indians  who 
were  under  his  Episcopal  care,  or  in  reference 
to  Agents  unless  they  were  nominees  of  the  Epis- 
copal Missionary  Committee.  A  passage  in  his 
Second  Aimual  Report  (1874)  describes,  partly 
in  the  words  of  his  report  to  the  Government,  the 
situation  with  which  he  and  his  colleagues  were 
called  upon  to  deal,  and  sets  forth  with  vigor 
his  views  on  the  uses  of  the  military  in  the  Indian 
country  at  the  time  in  question: 

"The  disturbances  on  the  Red  Cloud  and 
Spotted  Tail  Agencies  during  the  latter  part  of 
last  winter  were  of  so  severe  a  nature  that  alarm 
spread  over  the  western  country,  and  the  con- 
viction was  prevalent  that  a  general  Sioux  war 
was  impending.  There  were  some  who  believed 
that  the  turbulence  of  the  Indians  was  owing  to 
the  wrongdoing  of  their  Agents.  These  Agents 
had  been  nominated  by  the  Executive  Committee 
of  the  Indian  Commission  of  our  Church.  I  had 
reasons  to  believe  that  they  were  honorable  men. 
I  was  of  the  opinion  that  the  cause  of  the  trouble 
should  be  sought  elsewhere  than  in  the  misbe- 
havior of  the  Agents,  and  when  I  was  requested 


112      LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

by  the  Government,  which  had  committed  these 
Indians  to  the  special  oversight  of  our  Church, 
to  act  as  a  Commissioner  to  visit  them  and  inves- 
tigate the  condition  of  affairs,  I  did  not  feel 
at  liberty  to  decline.  The  conclusions  which 
were  arrived  at  during  that  visit  were  confirmed 
during  a  second  visit  some  months  later  and  abide 
to-day;  and  as  a  Hke  condition  of  affairs  will 
probably  come  to  be  whenever  large  numbers  of 
other  Indians  find  themselves,  as  they  will,  in 
circumstances  like  those  which  are  now  under 
consideration,  and  as  it  is  important  that  the 
charity  of  the  people  of  the  Church  towards  these 
Indians  should  be  built  up  upon  a  true  impres- 
sion of  their  temper  and  condition,  I  give  these 
conclusions  here,  almost  in  the  words  in  which, 
as  chairman  of  the  Commission,  I  reported  them 
to  the  Government.  I  believe  that  they  will 
appear  to  fair-minded  persons  to  be  a  priori 
reasonable  as  they  were  discovered  upon  actual 
examination  to  be  fact.  If  true,  their  accept- 
ance ought  not  to  be  hindered  by  the  disposition 
to  think  that  because  the  Indians  have  been  often 
wronged,  they  are  always  in  the  right. 

"The  Indians  who  have  caused  so  much  anx- 
iety are  the  OgaUallas  and  the  Upper  Brules, 
connected  respectively  with  the  Red  Cloud  and 
the  Spotted  Tail  (Whetstone)  Agencies.  They 
are  among  the  most  distant  of  the  Sioux  from 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT      113 

civilizing  influences,  and  the  last  who  have 
accepted  a  position  of  dependence  upon  the  Gov- 
ernment. Their  Agencies  are  the  resort  during 
the  i^dnter  of  multitudes  of  northern  Indians 
(Minneconjous,  Sans  Arcs,  Uncpapas,  etc.), 
variously  estimated  at  from  10,000  to  1.5,000  in 
number,  who  range  over  districts  still  further 
removed  from  civilization  and  the  power  of  the 
Government,  and  who,  when  driven  in  from  their 
roving  life  upon  the  plains  farther  north  by  the 
rigors  of  the  winter,  come  to  the  Red  Cloud  and 
Spotted  Tail  Agencies,  attracted  by  the  rations 
which  the  Government  dispenses  there. 

"The  wilder  spirits  among  the  Ogallallas  and 
Upper  Bndes  find  in  these  sojourners  congenial 
company.  Combined  they  constitute  a  turbu- 
lent party,  wliich  for  the  time  rules  the  Agencies 
with  a  high  hand.  The  better-disposed  Indians 
have  not  yet  reached  strength  enough,  either  in 
number  or  character,  to  resist  these  impetuous 
hordes  from  the  north  and  their  abettors.  Those 
who  sincerely  desire  to  learn  a  better  way  dare 
not  raise  their  heads ;  and  those  who  favor  prog- 
ress in  quiet  times,  because  it  seems  the  winning 
side,  are  politic  enough  to  float  with  the  tide 
when  its  tumultuous  waters  run  the  other  way. 
From  the  time  of  the  arrival  of  these  outside 
bands,  white  men  living  on  the  Reservation  are 
careful  not  to  expose  themselves  after  nightfall, 


114     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

and  those  who  for  months  have  been  accustomed 
to  travel  through  the  country  alone  without  fear 
of  molestation,  seek  an  escort  of  friendly  Indians. 
The  Agents  are  subjected  to  intimidation  and 
to  the  most  violent  and  unreasonable  demands, 
while  now  and  then  small  war-parties  dash  off 
into  the  adjacent  country  in  the  hope  of  happen- 
ing upon  a  stray  soldier,  or  finding  an  oppor- 
tunity of  running  off  stock. 

"This  turbulence  usually  continues  and  in- 
creases until  it  reaches  its  climax  about  the  time 
when  the  severity  of  winter  is  relaxing  and  the 
visitors  from  the  north  are  beginning  to  make 
their  preparations  for  a  return  to  their  wild 
northern  retreats. 

"The  past  winter  was  no  exception  to  the  gen- 
eral rule.  Comparative  quiet  prevailed  at  both 
Agencies  during  all  last  summer  and  early  fall, 
but,  upon  the  incoming  of  the  northern  Indians, 
trouble  at  once  began.  The  most  extravagant 
demands  were  made  for  rations,  and  enforced 
by  intimidation.  The  efforts  of  the  Agents  to 
make  a  census  of  the  people  (which  was  essen- 
tial to  the  proper  regulation  of  the  issue  of 
rations)  were  thwarted  and  defied.  When  reg- 
istration was  notwithstanding  attempted,  the 
Agents  were  forcibly  restrained,  and  their  lives 
were  threatened,  and  they  were  informed  that 
should  they  dare  to  pass  beyond  certain  limits. 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT      115 

which  were  marked  out  for  them,  they  would  do 
it  at  their  peril. 

"Early  in  February,  a  war-party,  one  or  two 
hundred  strong,  was  organized — perhaps  there 
were  several  of  them — and  started  on  a  maraud- 
ing- expedition  for  the  settlements  farther  south. 

"There  is  no  exact  information  as  to  the 
amount  of  stock  which  was  run  off  by  these  par- 
ties; but  within  ten  days,  a  man  named  King, 
a  hunter,  was  shot  on  Laramie  Fork;  Edgar 
Gray,  a  teamster,  was  killed  on  the  Running 
Water;  Lieutenant  Robinson  and  Corporal  Cole- 
man, while  absent  from  their  train,  were  pursued 
and  killed  near  Laramie  Peak;  and  Frank  D. 
Appleton,  clerk,  was  shot  dead  (as  is  supposed, 
by  one  of  the  above-named  war-party  on  its 
return)  within  the  stockade  of  the  Red  Cloud 
Agency. 

"There  is  sufficient  evidence  that  the  better 
spirits  discountenanced  these  lawless  proceed- 
ings; that  the  murder  of  Appleton  moved  one 
of  the  chiefs  to  tears;  that  the  Agents  were 
able  to  form  a  number  of  the  Indians  into  a 
guard  to  protect  themselves  and  their  Agencies; 
that  one  Indian,  and  he  a  northern  man,  de- 
manded the  return  of  stolen  horses  from  a  war- 
party  of  which  his  nephew  was  a  leader,  and 
when  it  was  refused,  shot  him  and  rescued  the 
stolen  property  by  force;  and  that  another  de- 


116     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

fended  his  agent  at  the  peril  of  his  own  life. 
But,  notwithstanding",  turbulence  seems  to  have 
reigned  for  some  time  ahiiost  supreme. 

"To  add  to  the  difficulty  of  the  situation,  these 
Agencies  have  been  the  refuge  of  white  des- 
peradoes (thieves,  gamblers,  whisky  peddlers, 
cut-throats  and  jail-birds  of  every  sort),  whom 
the  agents,  being  destitute  of  force  to  uphold 
their  authority,  have  been  unable  to  control  or 
remove. 

"Under  these  circumstances  I  have  urged  that 
the  Government  was  bound  to  uphold  its  Agents 
and  enforce  order  by  the  presence  of  troops.  It 
was  manifest  that  thus  only  could  the  Govern- 
ment save  its  Agents  from  the  necessity  of  being 
the  toj^s  or  tools  of  lawless  savages,  and  becom- 
ing a  hindrance  rather  than  a  help  to  their  real 
progress,  and  put  at  their  command  sufficient 
power  to  enable  them  to  discharge  their  duties 
and  to  make  their  reasonable  demands  respected ; 
thus  only  to  secure  to  the  better-disposed  Indians 
another  resource  than  falling  in  with  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  wild  and  riotous,  or  else  becom- 
ing their  victims;  thus  only  to  insure  that  brute 
violence  should  no  longer  keep  at  a  distance  those 
missionary  and  educational  instrumentalities 
which  the  better  Indians  desire,  and  their  friends 
are  ready  to  provide;  thus  only  to  enable  the 
Agents  to  be  a  power  'for  the  punishment  of 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT     117 

evil-doers  and  for  the  praise  of  those  that  do 
well,'  and  to  drive  away  from  among  the  Indians 
the  white  desperadoes  and  fugitives  from  justice 
who  have  hitherto  frequently  been  able  not  only 
to  make  the  Agencies  their  refuge,  but  to  exert 
a  very  sensible  influence  there.  The  corrupting 
influence  of  private  soldiers,  which  will  at  once 
occur  to  many  minds  as  an  objection  to  this  plan, 
is  not  to  be  feared  among  the  wilder  Sioux  as 
much  as  elsewhere,  as  the  women  are  generally 
virtuous,  and  these  bad  influences  might  be 
reduced  to  a  minimum  by  the  placing  of  the  post 
at  a  short  distance  from  the  Agencies  and  by 
the  exclusion  of  the  Indians  from  their  precincts. 
"The  policy  thus  sketched  has  met  with  not  a 
little  unfavorable  criticism.  That  it  is  justly 
liable  to  it  I  do  not  believe.  We  look  in  vain 
among  the  more  advanced  communities  for  civili- 
zation so  general  and  complete  that  order  is  pre- 
served without  an  appeal  to  force.  A  police 
more  or  less  completely  organized  and  equipped 
is  a  prominent  feature  of  every  community. 
Why  then  should  it  be  expected  that  nothing 
more  than  moral  suasion  will  be  needed  in  the 
management  of  a  people  not  only  uncivilized, 
but  savage  and  wild,  who  tliis  day  believe,  and 
act  upon  the  belief,  that,  as  one  of  them  told 
me,  'the  Almighty  has  written  it  in  their  hearts 
that  they  should  kill  Pawnees  and  other  Indians 


118     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

who  do  not  belong  to  their  tribe';  who  are  wont 
to  vent  the  wild  sorrow  and  exasperation  in  which 
the  death  of  a  loved  relatiA^e  plunges  them,  by 
hurrying  oiF  to  a  white  settlement  and  killing 
a  white  man ;  who  put  in  terror  of  their  lives  those 
among  them  who  are  disposed  to  farm  or  in  any 
way  adopt  the  path  of  wisdom;  whose  natures 
are  occasionally  swept  by  such  fearful  gusts  of 
passion  that  they  need  to  be  protected  from 
themselves;  and  who  not  merely  have  been,  but 
are  to-day,  guilty  of  all  the  atrocities  which  pre- 
cede and  the  abominable  and  hideous  supersti- 
tions which  accompany  the  scalp  dance. 

"Manifestly  Xature  here  is  too  savage  and 
violent  to  be  approached  only  by  moral  suasion. 
The  situation  is  too  intolerable  to  be  left  to  the 
solution  of  time.  The  Church  as  the  messenger 
of  righteousness  as  well  as  of  peace,  while  she 
carefully  refrains  from  using  force  herself, 
should  countenance  its  use  by  the  proper  author- 
ity, in  order  that  lawless  men  may  see  that  there 
is  such  a  thing  as  Government  and  that  it  'bear- 
eth  not  the  sword  in  vain.'  In  the  organized 
society  the  magistrate  calls  upon  the  police  to 
wield  that  sword.  In  unorganized  societies,  such 
as  exist  in  the  wild  Indian  country,  he  must  call 
in  the  aid  of  the  military. 

"That  all  the  Indians,  the  majority  of  whom 
are  perfectly  peaceable,  should  be  placed  in  the 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT     119 

charge  of  the  military,  or  that  any  Indians  should 
be  transferred  to  their  sole  control,  follows  no 
more  from  the  advocacy  of  their  due  employ- 
ment in  subordination  to  the  civil  power  in  sup- 
pressing violence,  than  their  use  by  the  civil 
authorities  in  suppressing  riot  in  our  cities  is  an 
argument  for  a  universal  mihtary  despotism. 
As  a  matter  of  experience,  the  mere  presence  of» 
the  military  accomplishes  generally  all  that  is 
needed.  A  sense  of  responsibility  is  begotten 
all  around,  in  wliite  men  and  red  men.  Fugi- 
tives from  justice  slink  away  or  are  'on  their  good 
behavior.'  The  wild  Indian  curbs  his  violence  or 
vanishes  to  parts  where  government  is  yet  un- 
kno\vn.  The  better-disposed  Indians,  delivered 
from  the  domineering  threats  of  the  mere  bar- 
barian, begin  to  plant  the  ground  and  become 
advocates  of  civilization,  schools  and  churches. 
As  a  fact  the  Red  Cloud  and  Spotted  Tail 
Agencies,  notorious  for  their  scenes  of  violence, 
have,  under  the  good  influence  of  this  coopera- 
tion of  the  troops  mth  the  Agent,  become  within 
six  months  a  safe  field  not  only  for  Christian 
JVIissions  but  for  woman's  part  of  Christian  Mis- 
sions. 

"Of  this  plan  of  administration  among  turbu- 
lent Indians  I  have  been  the  open  advocate.  The 
man  who  pursues  a  straight  road  will  probably 
cross   the   path   of   those   who   follow   tortuous 


120     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

courses  and  cannot  hope  to  advance  far  without 
being  assailed.  I  have  met  with  a  measure  of 
such  experience.  Of  course  a  favorite  mode  of 
attack  will  be  to  impute  to  me  some  course  of 
conduct  inconsistent  with  my  office — e.  g.,  as  a 
minister  of  the  Gospel  of  peace.  To  such  at- 
tacks I  have  not  replied.  But  it  may  not  be 
out  of  place  for  me  to  state  here  that  while  I 
should  have  no  more  hesitation  in  seeking  the 
protection  of  the  mihtarj'',  if  proper  occasion 
should  arise,  in  protecting  me  from  the  lawless, 
while  I  sought  to  minister  to  those  who  were  dis- 
posed to  listen  to  me,  than  I  should  have  as  a 
city  pastor  in  appeahng  to  the  police  to  shield 
me  from  rowdies  who  hindered  me  on  the  way 
to  my  church,  I  have  as  a  fact  made  it  my  habit 
to  travel  through  the  country  and  to  appear  in 
the  most  tumultuous  scenes  without  any  fu*earm 
or  weapon  whatever,  and  without  any  protection 
save  such  as  was  afforded  by  the  presence  of 
friendly  Indians.  The  only  exceptions  to  this 
rule  have  been  two  occasions  when  I  acted  as  one 
of  a  Government  commission  and  my  ecclesias- 
tical character  was  entirely  laid  aside."     .     .     . 

It  was  in  the  performance  of  the  special  work 
for  the  Government  which  has  just  been  de- 
scribed that  Bishop  Hare  considered  his  Hfe  in 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT      121 

more  imminent  danger  at  the  hands  of  the  hos- 
tile Indians  than  at  any  other  time  in  his  career. 
The  circmnstances  are  reported  by  his  son.  Ac- 
companied by  a  small  troop  of  United  States 
Cavalry,  the  commissioners  met  several  thousand 
of  the  disaffected  Sioux  in  council.  The  com- 
missioners sat  in  chairs  with  an  interpreter  beside 
them.  The  cavalry  were  mounted  behind.  The 
chiefs  and  leaders  sat  in  a  great  semi-circle  in 
front.  Back  of  them  were  hundreds  of  young 
bucks  galloping  madly  hither  and  thither  shoot- 
ing their  rifles  in  the  air  and  giving  vent  to  wild 
cries.  As  Spotted  Tail  finished  a  spirited  and 
clever  speech  in  which  he  virtually  told  the  com- 
missioners to  go  back  to  the  East  and  mind  their 
own  business,  he  suddenly  gave  a  signal,  as  a 
result  of  which  every  unmounted  Indian  ran  to 
his  horse  and  flung  himself  in  the  saddle,  grasp- 
ing his  gun.  Bishop  Hare  and  his  colleagues 
and  the  handful  of  cavalrymen  expected  to  be 
massacred  then  and  there,  as  they  would  have 
been  if  any  soldier,  determined  to  sell  his  life 
dear,  had  fired  a  shot.  Seeing  the  self-control 
of  the  whites.  Spotted  Tail  gave  another  signal, 
and  with  a  wild  whoop  the  whole  tribe  wheeled 
and  disappeared  at  a  gaUop  over  the  hills. 
Turning  to  the  commissioners  Spotted  Tail  said : 
"You  see  I  could  have  killed  you  in  a  minute  by 


122     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

raising  my  hand.  Go  back  to  the  Great  Father 
in  the  White  House,  and  tell  hun  what  I  have 
done  and  what  he  must  do." 

Bishop  Hare's  course,  both  in  the  holding  of 
Indian  Agents  strictly  to  account  and  in  advo- 
cating the  free  use  of  troops  where  needed,  inevi- 
tably provoked  opposition.  In  a  letter  to  his 
sister,  July  12,  1874,  he  wrote:  "Thanks  for  the 
newspapers,  which  I  like  to  see.  I  have  taken 
my  stand  and  expect  to  be  reviled,  sometimes  by 
rogues  and  sometimes  by  sentimental  philan- 
thropists." How  tmly  through  it  all  he  was  the 
Indian's  friend  the  events  which  followed  the 
discovery  of  gold  in  the  Black  Hills  gave  him 
abundant  occasion  to  show.  In  natural  beauty, 
as  in  natural  resources,  there  was  no  portion  of 
the  Sioux  Reservation  so  desirable  as  that  which 
contained  the  Black  Hills.  "The  Indians' 
attachment  to  it,"  wrote  Bishop  Hare,  "is  a  pas- 
sion. And  well  it  may  be,  for  this  district  is  the 
kernel  of  their  nut,  the  yelk  of  their  egg."  But 
for  the  gold  found  in  it,  the  Indians  would  prob- 
ably have  been  welcome  to  occupy  it  for  an 
indefinite  period.  This  discovery  created  a  state 
of  affairs  in  which  it  became  clear  at  once  that 
the  rights  of  the  Indians  to  an  undisturbed  pos- 
session of  their  lands,  under  the  treaty  of  1868, 
were  in  serious  danger.  In  looking  back  upon 
this  passage  of  Dakota  history,  Bishop  Hare  said 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT      123 

in  the  "Reminiscences"  at  his  fifteenth  anniver- 
sary: 

"The  discovery  of  gold,  in  1875,  in  a  part 
of  the  great  Sioux  Reservation,  known  as  the 
Black  Hills,  set  a  large  part  of  our  western  pop- 
ulation aflame,  and  hundreds  of  adventurers  dur- 
ing that  year,  in  open  violation  of  the  law  and 
the  proclamation  of  the  Executive,  invaded  this 
portion  of  the  Indians'  land,  and  took  possession 
of  it. 

"I  was  outspoken  in  mj^  denunciation  of  this 
flagrant  violation  of  the  sacred  obligations  of  a 
great  to  a  w^eak  people.  I  foresaw,  however, 
that  no  power  on  earth  could  shut  out  our  white 
people  from  that  country  if  it  really  contained 
valuable  deposits  of  gold  or  other  mineral.  I 
went,  therefore,  to  Washington  and  urged  upon 
the  President  that  a  commission  of  experts  should 
be  sent  out  to  explore  the  country,  and  that, 
should  they  report  the  presence  of  gold,  steps 
should  be  taken  to  secure  a  surrender  of  the  tract 
in  question  from  the  Indians  on  equitable  terms. 
This  was  eventually  done. 

"The  Government  had  at  first  been  prompt 
and  decided  in  requiring  the  removal  of  the 
intruders;  then  it  weakened  and  prevaricated; 
and  soon  the  desire  for  the  acquisition  of  this 
comitry  was  so  ardent  and  influential,  that  the 
Government  was  practically  driven  to  negotiate 


124     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

with  the  Indians  to  secure  a  voluntary  sale  of 
the  coveted  territory,  as  the  only  resort  from  the 
danger  of  a  popular  movement  which  should 
snatch  it  from  them  by  force. 

"The  Black  Hills  were  thus  thrown  open  to 
settlement,  and  I  made  there  my  first  efforts  in 
the  line  of  establishing  the  Church  among  the 
white  people  of  Dakota." 

Before  the  situation  reached  a  critical  stage, 
Bishop  Hare  placed  himself  admirably  on  record 
in  the  following  letter  to  President  Grant : 

"Yankton  Agency,  Dak.,  June  9,  1874. 
"To  His  Eoccellency,  U,  S,  Grant,  President  of 

the  United  States. 

*'Sir:  In  the  month  of  February  a  Commis- 
sion, of  which  I  had  the  honor  to  be  the  Chair- 
man, was  appointed  by  the  Honorable  Secretary 
of  the  Interior  to  visit  the  Red  Cloud  and  Whet- 
stone Agencies  and  to  make  such  recommenda- 
tions as  upon  examination  should  seem  to  them 
judicious  as  to  the  line  of  policy  to  be  pursued 
toward  the  Indians  connected  with  those  Agen- 
cies and  towards  the  Indians  from  the  North, 
large  bodies  of  which  Indians  had  made  the  above 
named  Agencies  their  resort  during  the  past 
winter. 

"That  Commission  unanimously  recommended 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT      125 

that  a  special  effort  should  be  made  this  summer 
for  the  conciliation  of  the  Northern  Sioux,  and 
that,  in  order  to  deter  them  from  pushing  south 
as  winter  approaches  to  draw  rations  at  the  Red 
Cloud  and  Whetstone  Agencies  and  thus  increas- 
ing the  dangerous  element  on  the  northern  border 
of  Nebraska,  an  Agency  should  be  established 
for  these  Indians  near  the  Black  Hills,  or  else- 
where, in  their  own  part  of  the  Sioux  Reserve. 

"I  had  the  privilege  of  bringing  this  recom- 
mendation of  the  Commission  before  your  mind 
in  the  personal  interview  with  your  Excellency 
with  which  I  was  favored  in  April  last.  It  was 
approved  and  adopted  by  the  Honorable  Secre- 
tary of  the  Interior  and  I  have  now  in  my  pos- 
session a  letter  from  the  Department  of  the 
Interior  continuing  the  Commission  and  instruct- 
ing it  to  put  into  effect  the  recommendations 
rehearsed  above. 

"On  returning  from  Washington  to  tliis  part 
of  the  country,  I  found,  to  my  surprise,  that  the 
newspapers  were  teeming  with  news  of  a  mili- 
tary expedition  fitting  out  for  the  heart  of  the 
Sioux  country,  the  Black  Hills,  and  with  pro- 
posals that  Sioux  City  and  other  towns  should 
not  fail  to  be  represented  in  the  large  party  of 
adventurers  who  were  prepared  to  follow  in  the 
wake  of  the  military. 

"Having  learned  from  the  Secretary  of  the 


126     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

Interior  that  such  a  military  expedition  is  pre- 
paring, I  gladly  avail  myself  of  an  invitation 
given  by  him  to  address  you  on  the  subject,  and 
beg  to  present  the  following  points: 

"1st.  That  the  appointment  of  a  commission 
to  invite  a  delegation  of  Northern  Sioux  to  make 
a  friendly  visit  to  Washington  and  accept  the 
bounty  of  the  Government,  and  the  invasion  of 
their  country  by  a  military  expedition  are  in- 
compatible. Either  course  may  be  pursued,  but 
not  both. 

"2d.  That  such  an  expedition  would,  almost 
beyond  a  doubt,  provoke  an  Indian  war.  The 
Yellowstone  Expedition  of  last  summer,  though 
it  did  not  invade  the  territory  assigned  the  Sioux, 
so  greatly  alarmed  and  excited  them  that  war- 
riors hastened  to  resist  it  from  most  of  the  Sioux 
tribes,  and  confronted  it,  it  has  been  reported, 
several  thousand  strong.  What  may  be  ex- 
pected then  as  the  result  of  an  expedition  which 
not  only  invades  the  Sioux  country,  but  pene- 
trates it  through  and  through  and  cuts  into  that 
particular  part  of  it  which,  by  common  consent, 
is  the  hive  of  the  hostile  Sioux,  their  place  of 
council  when  war  parties  are  sent  out,  their 
retreat  in  times  of  danger,  and  the  pride  of  the 
nation?  Acting  under  the  peace  policy,  the 
Commissioners  recently  sent  out  by  the  Secretary 
of  the   Interior  recommended   that  a   feeding 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT      127 

agency  protected  by  a  friendly  garrison  should 
be  planted  near  this  part  of  the  Sioux  countr}\ 
This  plan  followed  out  would,  I  believe,  get  the 
Northern  Sioux  under  control  and  yet  preserve 
the  peace.  An  invasion  of  the  Black  Hills 
means,  I  fear,  or  at  least  will  surely  result  in, 
War  and  war  to  the  knife. 

"3d.  That  tliis  invasion  of  the  Indian  territory 
will  almost  beyond  a  question  be  made  the  occa- 
sion of  the  inroad  of  large  numbers  of  rapacious 
and  unprincipled  civilians.  Indeed,  as  the  ex- 
tracts taken  from  the  SioiOtV  City  Journal  which 
I  enclose  clearly  indicate,  a  party  is  already 
organizing  with  that  intent.  Such  intrusion,  as 
the  Report  of  the  Indian  Peace  Commission  of 
1867  (comprising  Generals  Sherman,  Augur, 
Harney  and  others)  emphatically  represents, 
have  been  the  most  frequent  causes  of  our  past 
Indian  troubles. 

"4th.  That  the  exasperation  which  would  en- 
sue from  such  an  expedition  would  seriously  im- 
peril the  existence  of  the  struggling  but  numer- 
ous missions,  which,  encouraged  by  your  policy, 
the  Episcopal  Church  is  nourishing  among  the 
Sioux,  and  endanger  the  lives  of  her  mission- 
aries.    .     .     . 

"5th.  That  in  1872,  as  recorded  by  General 
Walker,  late  Conmiissioner  of  Indian  Affairs, 
an  expedition  was  projected  and  partially  organ- 


128     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

ized  in  Dakota  for  the  purpose  of  penetrating 
the  Black  Hills  for  mining,  and  lumbering,  and 
an  invasion  of  the  Territory  was  imminent,  which 
would  beyond  a  peradventure,  General  Walker 
remarks,  have  resulted  in  a  general  Sioux  war. 
In  this  case  the  Executive  acted  with  great 
promptness.  A  proclamation  was  issued  warn- 
ing evil-disposed  persons  of  the  determination  of 
the  Government  to  prevent  the  outrage  and 
troops  were  put  in  position  to  deal  effectively 
with  the  marauders. 

"No  one  can  read  the  papers  hereabouts  with- 
out coming  to  the  conclusion  that  the  military 
expedition  now  projected  will  be  used  by  bad 
men  for  the  accomplishment  of  that  wrong  which 
your  own  action,  to  the  joy  of  good  men,  dis- 
countenanced and  thwarted  in  1872. 

*'6th.  That  the  j)roj)osed  military  expedition 
would  be  a  violation  of  the  national  honor,  which 
in  the  treaty  of  1868  pledged  the  Sioux  the  safety 
of  their  Territoiy  both  from  invasion  and  intru- 
sion. It  cannot,  indeed,  be  affirmed  that  all  the 
Sioux  have  observed  the  obligations  laid  upon 
them  by  tliis  treaty,  but  neither  can  it  be  main- 
tained that  they  have  as  a  people  so  violated  it 
as  to  effect,  ipso  facto,  its  annihilation,  nor  has 
the  United  States  declared  it  amiulled.  It  may 
be  well  to  declare  the  abrogation  of  the  treaty  of 
1868.     Until  that  is  done  what  but  some  emer- 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT      129 

gency  can  justify  military  invasion  of  their  land? 

"I  have  written,  Mr.  President,  in  no  spirit  of 
opposition  to  the  discreet  employment  of  the 
military  in  controlling  Indians.  The  recom- 
mendations contained  in  pages  7  and  8  and  13 
of  the  lleport  on  the  condition  of  the  Sioux  lately 
presented  by  me  as  Chairman  is  clear  proof  that 
I  hold  a  contrar}^  opinion ;  nor  in  the  spirit  which 
would  discourage  thorough  castigation  of  all 
marauding  bands,  who,  in  my  judgment,  ought 
to  be  punished  more  severely  and  persistently 
than  thej^  generally  have  been ;  and  if  war  ensues 
from  this  administration  of  justice,  let  it  come 
and  be  so  rigorously  prosecuted  that  it  shall  be 
plain  to  all  the  United  States  means  that  every 
soul  within  its  domain  shall  obey  its  will.  I  have 
written  in  the  fear  that  the  expedition  at  present 
under  discussion,  which  I  believe  to  be  dangerous, 
may  be  at  the  same  time  gratuitous,  and  bring 
the  nation  no  honor. 

"Thankful  that  in  appeahng  to  you,  Mr.  Pres- 
ident, I  appeal  to  the  ear  of  moral  courage  and 
justice,  and  cordially  acknowledging  how  much 
the  Indians  and  those  who  would  do  them  good 
owe  to  your  administration,  I  beg  to  subscribe 
myself,  with  great  respect, 

"Your  obedient  servant, 

"William  H.  Hare, 
"Misdonury  Bishop  of  Niobrara/' 


130     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

In  spite  of  all  efForts  to  restrain  private  adven- 
turers, they  thrust  themselves  during  1874  and 
1875  into  the  Indians'  country  and  began  taking 
possession  of  it.  "The  Government  has  been 
prompt  and  decided,"  wrote  Bishop  Hare  in  liis 
Report  for  1875,  "in  requiring  the  removal  of  the 
intruders ;  but  the  popular  desire  for  the  acquisi- 
tion of  this  country  has  been  so  ardent  and  influ- 
ential that  the  Government  has  been  practically 
driven  to  negotiate  with  the  Indians  to  secure  a 
voluntary  sale  of  the  coveted  territory,  as  the 
only  resort  from  the  danger  of  a  popular  move- 
ment which  should  snatch  it  from  them  by  force. 
.  ,  .  I  was  invited  by  the  Government  to  take 
charge  of  the  necessary  negotiations,  but  I 
thought  it  unwise  to  have  a  hand  in  proceedings 
which  were  so  liable  to  misconstruction."  At  liis 
suggestion  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hinman  was  made  a 
member  of  the  Commission.  Though  standing 
thus  in  the  background,  he  could  exert  a  valu- 
able influence.  A  passage  from  a  letter  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  Interior  will  show  with  how  true 
a  sense  of  justice  it  was  brought  to  bear: 

[To  Hon.  Columbus  Delano.] 

"1345  Pine  St.,  Philadelphia, 

-TiT     n        71^     ri  7  "March  5,  1875. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Delano: 

.     .     .     "Before  the  Commission  enters  upon 

its  duties;  however,  I  think  it  of  the  highest  im- 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT      131 

portance  that  the  attitude  of  the  Government  on 
the  Black  Hills  question  should  be  publicly  and 
definitely  settled.  Is  it  not  possible  for  the  Gov- 
ernment to  weigh  all  the  evidence  and  decide  offi- 
cially whether  or  not  it  indicates  the  presence  of 
gold  in  paying  quantities?  This  decision,  it 
seems  to  me,  should  be  made  public.  If  it  is  in 
the  negative,  it  should  be  followed  by  a  declara- 
tion of  the  determination  of  the  Government  to 
exclude  all  whites  and  hold  the  country  for  the 
Indians.  If  in  the  affirmative,  then,  as  the  past 
seems  to  show  that  it  is  vain  to  resist  the  mob  of 
adventurers  under  such  circumstances,  it  seems  to 
me  that  the  Government  should  do  the  just  and 
only  practicable  tiling,  buy  the  Black  Hills  coun- 
try from  the  Indians  for  a  fair  equivalent.  If, 
however,  it  is  not  mineral  wealth  but  lumber  or 
agricultural  capabilities  that  render  the  Hills  at- 
tractive, they  should  be  preserved  for  the  benefit 
of  their  present  owners  at  any  cost,  for  these  are 
blessings  of  wliich  the  Sioux  have  almost  none." 

The  result  of  the  negotiations  was  that  the 
Indians  sold  their  lands.  In  all  the  train  of  cir- 
cumstances attending  the  relations  between  the 
Sioux  and  the  Government  at  this  time,  the  Cus- 
ter Massacre  of  June,  1876,  was  the  event  which 
drew  the  attention  of  all  the  world  to  the  dis- 
tracted Indian  country.     In  Bishop  Hare's  mis- 


132     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

sion  the  outbreak  of  the  hostile  spirit  bore  its 
tragic  fruits  in  the  murder,  near  Cheyenne 
Agency,  of  a  new  recruit  to  his  staiF — the  Rev. 
R.  Archer  B.  Ffennell — by  two  Indians  wdth  a 
real  or  imagined  grievance,  who  had  vowed  to 
kill  the  first  white  man  they  met.  The  conduct 
of  the  Christian  Indians,  throughout  the  whole 
resurgence  of  the  spirit  of  barbarism,  gave  good 
proof  that  the  seeds  of  ci\dlization  were  taking 
root.  But  Bishop  and  clergy  and  all  the  lay 
helpers  of  the  mission,  men  and  women,  were 
forced  to  realize  that  their  lives  were  surrounded 
with  danger.  A  vivid  impression  of  the  condi- 
tions under  which  they  were  laboring  at  this  time, 
is  conveyed  in  a  recent  letter  from  the  Rev. 
Henry  Swift,  attached  in  1876,  and  for  some 
years  afterw^ards,  to  the  Cheyenne  Agency  Mis- 
sion, and  now  a  chaplain  in  the  United  States 
Army.  He  renders  concrete  the  spirit  of  Bishop 
Hare's  work  and  the  nature  of  the  hazard  from 
which  the  military  might  be  needed  at  any  mo- 
ment to  redeem  it;  and  with  it  this  portion  of 
our  record  shall  end: 

"Fort  Sam  Houston,  Texas, 
"April  17,  1911. 
,     .     .     "The   country   was   rugged,    largely 
desert  (bad  lands)  and  occupied  by  the  wilder  of 
the  Indians.     In  our  earlier  years  the  element  of 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT      133 

danger  was  constantly  present;  while  to  traverse 
the  field  of  our  mission  work,  embracing  then 
seven  stations,  involved  always  much  hardship. 
Bishop  Hare  went  over  the  field  with  me  every 
year,  camping  out  often  under  the  stars,  beset  by 
floods,  with  miry  roads,  scant  food,  and  discom- 
forts of  every  kind.  It  was  often  a  great  grief  to 
me  to  have  liim  exposed  to  exceptionally  severe 
conditions,  but  he  was  ever  cheerful,  plucky,  and 
making  light  of  everj^thing.  Several  times  we 
were  in  actual  danger.  In  1876  my  colleague, 
the  Reverend  Archer  Ffennell,  was  killed  by  two 
hostile  Dakotas.  His  mission,  St.  John's,  three 
miles  from  the  Agency,  was  temporarily  aban- 
doned, until  I  could  reach  it  from  a  point  twenty- 
five  miles  beyond.  The  countr}^  was  then  swarm- 
ing with  hostiles,  and  the  Agency  people,  the  mil- 
itary, and  the  friendly  Indians,  protested  against 
even  myself  going  up  to  reoccupy  St.  John's. 
A  few  days  after  Bishop  Hare  arrived,  I  asked 
him  if  he  was  wilhng  to  go  up  to  St.  John's  with 
me.  He  answered  cheerily,  'Yes.'  The  mih- 
tary  insisted  on  our  having  an  armed  escort.  I 
did  not  think  it  necessary,  or  even  wise,  as  mani- 
festing a  distrust  of  the  people.  I  put  the  case 
to  the  Bishop  and  he  very  promptly  decided  that 
we  should  go,  unarmed  and  unattended;  so  I 
drove  him  up.  The  result  was  as  I  had  antici- 
pated.    The  people  fairly  thronged  us,  lament- 


134     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

ing  over  the  death  of  Mr.  Ffennell  and  ready 
ahnost  to  kiss  the  hem  of  the  Bishop's  robes. 

"Another  time  I  was  with  him  at  the  Lower 
Brule  Agency.  The  Indians  were  at  a  white 
heat  (they  were  all  wild  and  turbulent  then) 
over  the  arrest  of  one  of  their  number  for  an 
attempt  to  assassinate  the  Post  Trader.  The 
commanding  officer  of  the  Post  (Major  Joe 
Bush)  warned  us  not  to  put  ourselves  into  the 
hands  of  the  Indians,  that  our  lives  would  not 
be  worth  a  moment's  purchase.  There  were  with 
us  the  agent,  Dr.  Livingstone;  the  sub-agent, 
Major  Gregory,  and  the  Revs.  Messrs.  Burt  and 
Cleveland.  We  went  to  meet  the  Indians  in 
council  about  half  a  mile  away  from  the  Post. 
They  trooped  in  by  the  hundreds,  armed  to  the 
teeth,  all  mounted  and  smeared  vrith  red  paint, 
some  with  black,  which  was  ominous.  The 
Bishop  made  them  a  speech  and  told  of  the  work 
we  hoped  to  do.  When  he  had  finished,  their 
head  chief  advanced  and  with  frenzied  gestures 
told  him  and  us  that  they  cared  nothing  for  school 
or  church,  or  to  hear  of  any  of  those  things,  that 
all  they  desired  was  that  the  young  man  impris- 
oned be  forthwith  released.  Of  course  the 
Bishop  and  the  Agent  both  had  to  deny  the 
demand.  The  request  was  repeated.  They 
fairly  danced  with  rage,  shaking  their  fists  in 
our  faces,  and  finally  moving  back  a  little  they 


RELIGION,  SCHOOL  AND  GOVERNMENT      135 

mounted  their  horses,  and  with  guns  in  hand, 
bore  down  on  us  in  an  ominous  circle.  We  were 
never  nearer  death  than  at  that  moment.  But 
hke  a  flash  a  sudden  panic  overtook  them,  w^e 
knew  not  why,  and  one  and  all  started  to  fly, 
urging"  their  horses  to  the  utmost.  In  a  moment 
they  had  vanished,  and  then,  turning  and  look- 
ing towards  the  Post,  we  saw  why  all  this  had 
happened.  There  were  two  loaded  cannon 
pointed  grimly  in  our  direction  and  a  whole  com- 
pany of  soldiers  standing  at  arms.  Major  Bush 
had  seen  in  what  peril  we  were  and  had  acted 
promptly.  Once  an  interviewer  asked  Bishop 
Hare  if  he  had  ever  been  in  peril  from  the 
Indians.  He  answered  'Yes,'  but  refused  to  go 
into  details.     I  give  them  now. 

"The  term  'Apostle  to  the  Sioux'  belongs  to 
Bishop  Hare  preeminently.  His  was  the  initi- 
ating hand,  his  the  fostering  care,  and  under 
God's  grace  to  him  is  due  the  stable  establish- 
ment of  the  numerous  missions,  which  to-day  are 
his  monument." 


TRIALS  OF   BODY  AND   SPIRIT 

1873-1878-1887 

THERE  is  ample  evidence  in  the  passages 
already  cited  to  indicate  the  physical  and 
mental  strain  inseparable  from  these  early  expe- 
riences of  Bishop  Hare.  Carrying  his  message 
through  a  wild  country,  stiiiggling  frequently 
against  the  handicaps  of  poor  health,  harassed 
by  the  problems  of  both  the  spiritual  and  the 
temporal  welfare  of  the  Indians,  there  could  have 
been  none  to  blame  him  had  he  found  his  task 
impossible.  To  the  evidence  of  his  own  words 
the  more  specific  testimony  of  a  fellow  worker, 
an  observer  at  close  range,  may  well  be  added. 
Looking  back  upon  the  long  perspective  of  a 
twenty-fifth  anniversary,  the  Rev.  Joseph  W. 
Cook  spoke  in  1893  as  follov/s: 

"Who  in  any  small  measure  can  enter  into  the 
burden  of  it?  The  anxious  thought  and  care, 
the  weary  explorations  in  the  almost  patliless 
wilds  to  prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord,  the  hard- 
ships of  the  pilgrimages,  the  conferences  with 

136 


TRIALS  OF  BODY  AND  SPIRIT         137 

wild  men  often  opposed  to  the  white  man's  way 
and  utterly  misunderstanding  motives  and  need- 
ing to  be  dealt  with  with  so  much  tact  and  self- 
restraint  to  make  them  see  their  own  best 
interests,  and  to  save  them  from  themselves,  the 
disappointments  and  desolating  sins  of  some 
workers  in  the  field;  the  lack  of  sympathy  of 
some,  apathy  and  failure  in  others  to  enter 
heartily  into  his  plans.  And  again,  there  is  the 
financial  burden — enough  in  itself  to  crush  any 
ordinary  mortal — for  the  Bishop  very  soon  dis- 
covered that  it  was  left  largely  to  him  to  raise  the 
funds,  and  he  must  go  before  the  churclimen  and 
churchwomen  and  plead,  and  call  them  to  their 
duty  and  privilege  to  become  fellow-workers  with 
God  and  him  in  this  field.  The  vexations  of  see- 
ing golden  opportunities  passing  by,  or  the  impos- 
sibility of  enlargement  of  important  work,  and, 
sometimes,  the  curtailing  or  abandonment  because 
the  funds  were  insLifficient.  Again,  the  disburse- 
ment of  the  funds — for  often  'the  bed  is  shorter 
than  that  a  man  can  stretch  himself  on  it;  and 
the  covering  narrower  than  that  he  can  wrap 
himself  in  it.'  The  funds,  whether  from  white 
persons,  or  congregations,  or  societies,  or  from 
the  Indians,  who  in  most  cases  have  assisted 
according  to  their  abihty,  for  all  the  many 
churches,  chapels,  parsonages  and  schools,  have 
passed  through  the  Bishop's  hands,  and  the  plans 


138     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

also  have  been  devised  or  approved  by  him.  And 
then  there  is  the  correspondence,  the  incessant 
writing  in  the  cars,  in  camps,  in  the  few  minutes 
caught  here  and  there  while  waiting,  as  well  as 
in  hours  stolen  from  much  needed  rest  and  sleep. 
And  all  this,  and  much  more,  in  a  body  often 
tortured  by  weakness  and  serious  ailments,  crav- 
ing rest  and  recuperation.  Nolo  episcopari,  we 
are  safe  in  saying,  is  the  sentiment  of  most,  if 
not  all  of  us." 

While  the  stiTiggle  was  still  in  its  early  stages 
the  spirit  of  one  in  sore  straits  cried  out  in  tliis 
passage  from  a  letter  of  Bishop  Hare  to  his  sis- 
ter, July  18,  1874: 

"I  am  on  my  way  to  the  Santee  Mission  and 
write  from  a  wayside  ranch  where  I  have  had 
to  lay  by  for  a  few  hours  a  little  indisposed. 
What  with  a  prolonged  term  of  excessive  heat 
and  drouth  which  tried  human  nature  sorely  and 
blighted  the  Indians'  hope  of  fair  crops,  a  plague 
of  grasshoppers  which  have  alighted  on  the  corn 
in  such  numbers  that  the  stalks  are  hardly  vis- 
ible, the  general  muss  in  Indian  affairs  both  at 
Washington  and  out  in  the  Indian  country,  and 
the  half  truth,  half  lie,  which  the  telegraph  sends 
weekly  from  this  part  of  the  world  to  the  papers, 
and  the  disgusting  liberties  which  the  press  is 
taking  with  my  name  both  East  and  West,  I 
find  it  hard  to  preserve  my  equanimity.     I  should 


TRIALS  OF  BODY  AND  SPIRIT         139 

utterly  faint  by  the  way,  but  that  faith  can  dis- 
cover in  this  country  as  well  as  in  Palestine  the 
footprints  of  a  weary  Lord." 

To  the  strength  which  his  own  faith  gave  him 
was  added  the  stimulus  of  the  faith  which  his 
friends  in  the  East  reposed  in  liim.  This  faith 
expressed  itself  in  the  letter  of  a  devoted  woman 
in  New  York: 

"21  Bible  House,  December  5,  1874. 
*'My  Dear  Bishop: 

"I  have  been  a  little  troubled  lately  by  a  new 
anxiety  about  our  Indian  work.  There  is  a 
rumor  in  the  air  that  it  will  not  be  hard  to  per- 
suade the  Bishop  of  Niobrara  to  change  his  Mis- 
sionaiy  Episcopate  for  one  of  less  hardship  and 
privation,  and  give  up  to  another  shepherd  the 
care  of  liis  few  sheep  in  the  wilderness.  This 
would  be  very  sorrowful,  if  it  could  be  true,  not 
because  any  one  should  dare  to  doubt  that  God 
can  fill  any  place  that  He  sees  fit  to  leave  vacant 
for  a  time;  but  because  missionary  zeal  at  home 
is  very  weak,  and  such  a  shock  would  do  untold 
harm  among  those  whose  faith  in  the  man  is  only 
just  beginning  to  lead  on  to  some  measure  of 
faith  in  that  for  which  he  labors. 

"Please  do  not  think  it  very  impertinent  of  me 
to  write  tliis.  I  could  not  help  it.  It  is  impos- 
sible that  you  should  know,  as  I  do  not  pretend 


140     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

to  know  myself,  how  many  watch  anxiously  to 
see  if  in  these  days  of  self-indulgence,  it  can 
be  that  there  really  is  one  man  willing  to  re- 
nounce the  social  comforts  to  which  he  has  been 
used,  and  the  dearer  happiness  of  home,  that  he 
may  be  the  father  of  a  despised  and  neglected 
people." 

The  two  ensuing  letters  to  a  trusted  friend 
were  written  in  a  time  of  sorest  doubt,  when  it 
appeared  that  Bishop  Hare's  o\\ti  fears  and 
those  of  his  friends  might  be  realized.  During 
this  period  there  were  friends  who  bestirred 
themselves  to  put  easier  work  definitely  in  his 
way,  and  sought  his  election  as  Bishop  first  of 
Southern  Oliio  and  then  of  Iowa.  But  there  is 
no  indication  that  he  sought  either  of  these  elec- 
tions himself  or  entertained  the  least  regret  that 
he  was  not  called  from  Niobrara. 

[To  Miss  E.  N.  Biddle.] 
"Yankton  Ag'y,  D.  T.,  December  13,  1874. 
"My  Dear  Friend: 

"I  have  been  so  unwilling  to  dwell  upon  or  talk 
of  a  matter  which  has  weighed  upon  my  mind 
that  I  have  not  touched  upon  it  when  I  have  seen 
you,  and  only  take  my  pen  for  a  few  words 
about  it  now  because  it  might  seem  out  of  har- 


TRIALS  OF  BODY  AND  SPIRIT         141 

niony  with  our  affectionate  friendship  if  I  did 
not.  I  write  now  to  you  personally  and  solely. 
I  am  face  to  face  with  the  necessity  of  leaving 
the  Indian  work  either  by  resignation  and  idle- 
ness, or  by  a  transfer  to  another  field.  A  year 
ago  I  received  a  warning  from  my  physician  at 
the  East  that  I  had  made  a  mistake  in  entering 
upon  my  present  life.  The  phj'^sician  at  Fort 
Randall  tells  me  that  he  discovered  a  year  ago 
that  I  could  not  live  in  this  climate;  if  I  were  a 
soldier  he  would  discharge  me  at  once,  and  that 
he  never  hears  of  my  return  here  but  with  mis- 
giving and  regret.  Dr.  [Weir]  ^litchell  writes 
me  that  I  am  'running  an  immense  risk  and  that 
it  is  imperative  and  a  duty  that  I  should  leave 
and  seek  a  gentler  life  as  soon  as  I  can  do  so 
consistently  with  duty.'  An  affection  which 
they  both  say  need  cause  me  no  alarai  under  ordi- 
nary conditions  is  here  aggravated  and  threatens 
fatal  disaster. 

"The  distress  which  this  causes  me,  independ- 
ently of  physical  suffering,  God  only  knows; 
your  love  may  imagine  it.  The  bare  thought  of 
seeming  to  turn  aside  like  a  broken  bow  in  the 
hands  of  the  Church  has  been  so  horrible  that  I 
could  not  at  first  so  much  as  look  at  the  course 
which  after  much  reflection  and  prayer,  I  have 
resolved  upon,  viz.,  to  accept  any  easier  work 


142     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

which  may  open  to  me.  I  know  that  this  simple 
statement  will  call  out  your  sympathy  and 
prayer,  and,  happy  in  knowing  this,  I  am  with 
warm  regard, 

"Yours  very  affectionately, 

"William  H.  Hare." 

[To  Miss  E.  N.  Biddle.] 
"Yankton,  D.  T.,  February  4,  1875. 
"My  Bear  Friend: 

"Many  hearty  thanks  for  your  very  sympa- 
tliizing  letter,  but  I  fear  that  I  have  drawn  forth 
more  sympathy  than  I  deserve.  I  am  better 
than  I  was  when  I  wrote  to  you,  indeed  I  think 
I  have  been  gaining  ever  since  I  went  East  in 
September  last,  and,  were  it  not  that  I  have  rea- 
son to  fear  that  the  citadel  has  been  shaken, 
should  be  quite  composed. 

"I  am  thinking  seriously  of  a  two-months'  trip 
to  the  South,  to  which  I  am  urged  by  my  physi- 
cian, and  may  start  East  any  day.  I  wish  to  slip 
off  unobserved,  as  I  dread  the  name  of  an  in- 
valid, and  think  the  Church  is  tired  of  hearing  of 
over-worked  and  sick  Bishops. 

"Our  work  moves  on  with  steady  step,  but  the 
winter  has  been  the  worst  ever  known — terrible 
storms  have  scoured  earth  and  sky  while  the 
mercuiy  has  been  30°  below  zero.     We  have  had 


TRIALS  OF  BODY  AND  SPIRIT         143 

it  down  to  44°  below.     This  morning  at  seven,  it 
was  33°. 

"In  warm  affection, 

"Yours  most  truly, 

"William  H.  Hare." 
"P.S. — My  proposed  trip  is  a  secret." 

Bishop  Hare's  diary  does  not  show  that  the 
proposed  trip  to  the  South  took  place.  In 
3Iarch  it  places  him  in  Washington,  presumably 
on  Indian  business  wliich  frequently  called  him 
there  for  consultation  with  the  President  and  the 
Secretary  of  the  Interior.  In  JNIay  he  was  back 
again  in  the  mission  field,  having  devoted  two 
months  to  the  presentation  of  his  cause  in  the 
East.  In  October  of  1875,  his  friend,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Heman  Dyer,  begged  liim  in  writing  to 
withliold  a  letter  of  resignation  from  the  House 
of  Bishops.  His  Fourth  Annual  Report,  dated 
October  7,  1876,  opens  with  a  brief  statement  of 
the  actual  event  and  its  consequences:  "Tak- 
ing advantage  of  a  Resolution  of  the  House  of 
Bishops,  in  which  they  most  kindly  urged  me  to 
seek  the  restoration  of  my  health  in  absence  from 
my  field  of  labor,  I  spent  nine  months  of  the  year 
past  abroad.  I  beg  now  to  report,  with  thank- 
fulness to  God,  that  my  health  is  so  much  im- 
proved that  I  am  able  to  resume  my  duties  in 
Niobrara." 


144     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

The  months  in  Europe,  but  for  an  attack  of 
fever  in  Venice  in  the  spring  of  1876,  which 
brought  him  nearer  than  ever  to  the  door  of 
death,  contained  their  full  measure  of  pleasant 
experiences.  The  record  of  the  pleasures  sup- 
plies a  grateful  interlude  in  a  chronicle  of  many 
hardships.  Both  for  the  brighter  days  and  for 
the  perils  of  the  nearly  fatal  illness  his  letters 
from  abroad  speak  with  sufficient  fullness. 
Many  descriptions  of  places  and  persons  may  be 
passed  over.  In  the  following  passages  the  few 
repetitions  permitted  to  appear  are  bound  up 
with  details  which  one  would  be  sorry  to  lose. 

[To  Miss  Mary  H.  Hare.] 

"Steamer  Abyssinia, 

"Sunday,  December  5,  1875. 

*'My  Dearest  Mary: 

"Yesterday  was  your  birthday  and  I  fully  in- 
tended writing  you  a  letter  in  loving  recognition 
of  it,  for  I  remember  well  your  first  birthday  and 
have  learned  well  since  then  how  much  of  bless- 
ing for  me  was  wrapped  up  in  it ;  but  it  was  im- 
possible to  carry  my  plan  into  action  for  we  have 
had  cheerless,  stormy,  rainy  ^veather  every  day 
since  we  left  New  York  until  to-da}^  when  it 
cleared;  the  vessel  has  been  pitching  about  at  a 
terrible  rate  and  I,  who  held  out  so  well  on  my 


TRIALS  OF  BODY  AND  SPIRIT         14i5 

previous  voyage,  had  to  succumb  after  the  first 
two  days,  and  yesterday  and  the  preceding  day 
was  miserably  seasick. 

"The  ship's  doctor  read  the  service  this  a.  m. 
and  I  made  a  short  address.  This  p.  m.  I  went 
into  the  steerage  where  there  are  over  one  hun- 
dred passengers  and  had  a  semace  for  them. 
Lord  Houghton  accompanied  me  and  Dr.  Parks. 
In  answer  to  my  question,  'Is  there  anyone  here 
w^ho  can  sing?'  a  good  fellow  turned  up  with  one 
of  Moody  and  Sankey's  Hymnbooks  and  so  we 
sang,  'Come,  thou  Fount  of  every  blessing,'  'All 
Hail  the  power  of  Jesus'  Name,'  and  'There  is 
rest  for  the  weary.'  We  had  a  most  successful 
service  and  when,  at  the  close,  I  suggested  that  I 
would  have  service  again  on  Wednesday,  a  cor- 
dial assent  welcomed  the  proposal.  .  .  .  Dr. 
Parks  I  find  a  capital  fellow.  He  asked  me 
when  I  wrote  to  present  his  kindest  remem- 
brances to  those  of  the  family  whom  he  met.  He 
speaks  very  cordially  of  the  friendship  which  he 
and  they  struck  up. 

"Lord  Houghton,  in  true  English  style,  was 
quite  offish  the  first  few  days,  but  has  relaxed 
and  become  quite  affable.  He  is  an  old  man, 
short  and  thick-set,  somewhat  neuralgic,  some- 
what peremptory,  fumbles  out  his  words  from  a 
mouth  kept  nearly  closed,  and  not  a  spendthrift 
in  his  courtesies."     .     .     . 


14,6     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

Before  reaching  England,  Lord  Houghton 
and  Bishop  Hare  found  each  other  out  more 
fully.  The  traveling  acquaintance  evidently 
had  its  very  agreeable  consequences. 

"The  Palace,  Gloucester,  England, 

"January  2,  1876. 
"My  Dearest  Mary: 

"I  wrote  a  week  ago  from  Crewe  Hall,  where 
my  visit  was  as  delightful  to  its  close  on  Wednes- 
day last  as  it  was  at  its  commencement.  I  was 
pressed  on  all  hands  to  stay  longer,  and  Lord 
Crewe  urged  that  I  would  come  again  to  him 
January  24,  when  he  expects  several  friends, 
among  others,  the  Bishops  of  Manchester  and 
Lichfield  and  one  or  two  other  great  people,  but 
I  expect  to  be  on  the  Continent  at  that  date  and 
had  to  decline. 

"The  day  before  I  left  Lord  Crewe,  Lord 
Houghton  and  I  went  over  to  see  Peckforton 
Castle,  a  country  seat  of  Mr.  Tollemache  of 
Helmingham,  an  inspiring  structure  built  in  the 
ancient  style,  with  round  tower,  etc.,  and  planted 
upon  a  high  and  somewhat  precipitous  hill.  It 
reminded  me  of  the  Drachenfels.  We  lunched 
with  the  proprietor,  a  charming  man.  He  has 
one  of  the  finest  studs  of  horses  in  England.  I 
saw  twenty-four  noble  horses  in  one  row  of  stalls 
and  I  heard  of  others  being  elsewhere.     He  is 


TRIALS  OF  BODY  AND  SPIRIT         14.7 

a  splendid  whip,  sits  on  the  box  like  a  king,  and 
guides  his  foiir-in-hand  with  whispers.  He 
drove  us  over  the  country  at  an  exhilarating  rate, 
and  as  I  was  on  the  box  beside  him  I  enjoyed 
the  drive  the  more.  He  is  the  father  of  twenty- 
five  children  (hide  your  diminished  heads.  Father 
and  INIr.  ]Miller) ,  and,  curiously  enough,  his  eleva- 
tion to  the  peerage  was  announced  the  day  of 
our  visit.  He  was  very  courteous  to  me,  and 
pressed  me  to  come  and  see  him  in  the  spring 
at  his  London  residence.  I  left  Crewe  Hall  on 
Wednesday  last  for  Lichfield,  where  I  spent  two 
days  with  his  Lordship,  the  Bishop,  and  saw  the 
Cathedral;  but  I  was  not  well  and  did  not  much 
enjoy  my  visit.  Thence  I  went  to  Hereford, 
where  I  dined  with  the  Bishop.  He  regretted 
that  his  house  was  full  of  Christmas  company, 
which  precluded  him  from  asking  me  to  pass  the 
night  with  him.  I  enjoyed  what  I  saw  of  him 
much.  Last  evening  I  came  here  where  the 
Bishop  received  me  with  the  greatest  cordiality. 
He  is  a  well-known  Biblical  scholar  and  I  found 
him  very  cordial  and  ready  to  talk.  He  took 
me  all  over  his  two  studies  and  showed  me  his 
methods  of  work.  He  is  the  pink  of  order  and 
has  box  upon  box  filled  with  pamphlets,  slips 
from  newspapers,  etc.,  etc.,  all  methodically  ar- 
ranged and  labeled.  Before  I  left  he  handed 
me  a  copy  of  his  "Commentarj^  on  the  Pastoral 


148     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

Epistles,"  with  my  name  in  it  and  'with  the  broth- 
erly regard  of  J.  C,  Glouc.  &  Bristol.'  His  wife 
is  a  handsome  woman,  a  well-known  musician. 
.  .  .  The  Bishop  of  Gloucester  and  Bristol 
and  Mrs.  Ellicott  both  pressed  me  to  stay  with 
them  in  London  in  ]May,  when  they  will  be  in 
residence  and  offered  me  all  sorts  of  inducements 
in  the  way  of  concerts,  a  visit  to  the  House  of 
Lords,  and  meeting  all  sorts  of  distinguished 
people,  literary,  civil  and  ecclesiastical.  My  visit 
to  Gloucester  was  really  an  event  in  my  Hfe,  for 
the  Bishop  quite  devoted  himself  to  me,  venerable 
though  he  is,  and  I  learned  his  views  on  many 
subjects  in  which  I  feel  interest. 

"I  was  gladdened  by  recei^ang  while  at  Crewe 
Hall  your  letter  of  the  15th  ult.,  enclosing  one 
from  Father,  for  which  please  thank  him. 
Would  that  he  could  have  enjoyed  the  Bishop  of 
G.  &  B !  'Ottws  and  Iva  would  have  flown  through 
the  air  like  shuttlecocks.  By  the  bye,  tell  Father 
that  the  Bishop  quite  agrees  with  him  as  to 
€K7ropevoiJi€uov  as  referring  to  the  temporal  mission, 
says  that  Trapa  (not  ek  )  indicates  that  this  is  what 
is  referred  to,  and  that  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia 
was    the    first    to    suggest    another    meaning." 

•  •         • 

An  item  of  clerical  gossip  jotted  in  Bishop 
Hare's  fragmentary  diary  while  he  was  at  Crewe 
Hall  seems  worth  preserving; 


TRIALS  OF  BODY  AND  SPIRIT         149 

"Fridaj^  December  24.  Bishop  Wilberforce, 
Lord  H.  says,  was  terribly  disappointed  when 
he  was  not  made  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
arguing,  'The  ministry  is  a  profession,  and,  as 
in  other  professions,  a  man  has  a  right  to  its 
honors.  Having  confessedly  reached  next  to  the 
highest  honor,  I  had  a  right  to  the  highest.'  " 

The  postscript  of  a  letter  from  Bishop  Hare 
while  in  London  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Dj^er,  January 
7,  1876,  is  one  of  many  indications  that  the 
thoughts  of  his  work  were  constantly  with  him : 

"It  occurs  to  me  to  add,  in  view  of  the  pros- 
pect of  this  being  a  winter  of  Congressional  in- 
vestigations and  of  my  being  out  of  reach  and 
of  the  possibility  of  charges  and  innuendoes  fly- 
ing hither  and  thither,  that  my  friends  may  be 
sure  that  should  any  suspicion  be  thrown  upon 
anything  I  have  had  a  hand  in,  there  is  nothing 
to  fear  from  investigation.  Let  it  be  pushed.  I 
may  have  lacked  wisdom,  never  truth  and  hon- 
esty." 

[To  Miss  E.  N.  Biddle.] 
"Cannes,  Fkance,  Hotel  de  Pavillon, 

"February  5,  1876. 
"My  Dear  Friend: 

"I  had  what  our  English  cousins  would  call 
a  'beastly'  voyage  across  the  Atlantic,  but  landed 
safe  in  due  season  in  Liverpool,  where,  as  you 


150     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

know,  there  is  little  to  detain  one  and  much  to 
hasten  one  away.  I  went  therefore  straight  to 
London  after  a  day's  rest,  where  I  stayed  ten 
days,  but  was  very  wretched  during  the  whole 
time  and  saw  nothing  but  St.  Paul's,  where  I 
heard  Dr.  Vaughan  in  the  a.  m.  deliver  one  of 
his  lucid  excellent  sermons  and  Canon  Liddon  in 
the  P.  M.  preach  a  much  more  pretentious,  but 
less  satisfactory  one.  He  was  not  up  to  his 
mark,  I  should  judge  from  the  sermons  of  his 
which  I  have  read;  but  the  sight  of  the  immense 
concourse  of  people  (about  3,000)  of  all  classes 
who  assemble  Sunday  after  Sunday  under  the 
dome  to  hear  him  was  most  impressive  and  a  most 
moving  sermon. 

"The  next  ten  days  I  spent  in  visiting,  fii-st, 
Lord  Crewe  at  Crewe  Hall,  one  of  the  most 
palatial  of  England's  lordly  mansions;  .  .  . 
then  in  visits  of  two  days  each  to  the  Bishops  of 
Lichfield  and  Gloucester — also  a  dinner  with  the 
Bishop  of  Hereford;  and  lastly  in  a  visit  to  the 
Earl  of  Buckinghamshire,  a  kinsman,  his  name 
Hobart,  he  a  clergyman  and  also  a  son  of  his, 
William  Hobart,  curiously  enough.  The  latter, 
however,  died  not  long  ago. 

"I  was  very  kindly  entertained  at  all  these 
houses  and  it  was  very  charming,  as  you  may 
suppose.  The  enjoyment  par  excellence  was  my 
stay  with  the  Bishop  of  Gloucester  and  Bristol, 


TRIALS  OF  BODY  AND  SPIRIT         151 

Dr.  Ellicott,  the  Commentator.  He  was  very 
affable,  quite  devoted  himself  to  me,  talked  for 
hours  on  subjects  in  which  I  was  deeply  inter- 
ested, and  showed  me  his  sanctum,  with  a  new 
Commentary  on  the  anvil;  etc.,  etc. 

*'I  left  England  reluctantly,  pressed  by  the  de- 
sire to  find  a  warmer  climate,  and  came  directly 
here  where  the  climate,  the  roses  and  jessamines, 
the  orange  groves  loaded  with  fruit,  the  azure 
sky  above,  the  blue  sea  to  the  south  and  the  snow- 
capped Maritime  Alps  to  the  north,  charm  the 
senses  and  seem  to  proclaim  that  everyone  is 
without  excuse  if  he  does  not  get  well  and  ex- 
claim, 'Thou,  Lord,  hast  made  me  glad  through 
Thy  works  and  I  will — ' 

"I  have  not  got  to  Egypt  yet.  I  doubt  if  I 
shall.  The  truth  is  that  I  suffer  so  much  in 
traveling  that  I  cannot  get  my  courage  up  to  un- 
dertake so  much  of  a  journey.  Still  I  am  sorely 
tempted,  if  only  for  a  visit  to  Alexandria  and 
Cairo  and  their  neighborhood. 

"As  to  my  health,  the  doctor  in  London  and 
the  one  here  whom  I  have  consulted,  quite  con- 
firm the  diagnosis  of  Dr.  Mitchell  and  Dr. 
Barker  of  New  York,  and  give  me  to  understand 
that  I  have  to  cope  with  serious  ailment;  but  I 
have  had  no  return  of  my  hemorrhages,  my  dif- 
ficulty in  breathing  is  much  relieved,  and  my 
general  health  is  decidedly  better.     I  have  good 


152     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

news  too  from  several  of  the  brethren  in  Nio- 
brara and  from  my  darling  boy.  God  be 
thanked;  so  that,  you  see  'goodness  and  mercy' 
still  follow  me.     .     .     . 

"Always  your  sincere  and  affectionate  friend, 
"William  H.  Hare." 

[To  Miss  Mary  H.  Hare.] 
"Naples,  Italy,  March  5,  1876. 
".  .  .  You  ask  about  my  health.  Well,  I 
have  had  my  ups  and  downs.  I  suppose  that, 
if  I  had  been  on  duty,  I  should  have  worked  on 
and  at  last  have  been  reined  up  short  by  a  hem- 
orrhage; but  I  have  had  nothing  to  do  but  to 
take  care  of  myself,  and  have  had  the  advice  of  a 
good  and  cheery  doctor  and  have  felt,  notwith- 
standing some  new  symptoms  which  discouraged 
me  at  first,  that  I  was  on  the  road  to  getting  well, 
and  I  have  improved  decidedly  within  the  last 
two  weeks.  The  doctor  read  me  some  very 
emphatic  and  serious  lessons  and  told  me  in  very 
plain  English  at  last,  when  he  found  that  I 
raised  the  question  whether  a  man  ought  always 
to  obey  his  physician  in  mapping  out  his  life, 
that  nothing  but  great  care  and  obedience  would 
save  me  from  hopeless  invalidism  (dropsy  and 
other  rather  unpleasant  things).  So  I  agreed 
with  him  that  I  should  just  go  out  to  Niobrara 
long  enough  this  June  to  meet  the  brethren  in 


TRIALS  OF  BODY  AND  SPIRIT         153 

Convocation,  abstaining  from  traveling  in  the 
wild  country,  spend  the  summer  months  at  the 
East  in  comparative  rest,  and  then  make  another 
short  visit  in  the  fall.  This  I  shall  do,  but  I 
confess  to  feeHng  very  unliappy  often  when  I 
think  of  others  'in  the  open  field,'  while  I  am  sur- 
rounded by  comforts  and  of  the  disappointment 
my  breaking  down  is  to  many  people's  hopes.  I 
must  try  to  make  up  for  less  activity  by  more 
prayer  and  love."     .     .     . 

[To  Miss  Mary  H.  Hare.] 

"Merax,  May  5,  1876. 
.  .  .  "This  will  reach  you  about  my  birth- 
day. May  17.  The  more  I  learn  of  what  oc- 
curred during  the  darkest  days  of  my  illness,  e.  g., 
that  Dr.  Potter,  during  his  visit  to  me  instructed 
Mrs.  Little  John  ^  what  disposition  had  better 
be  made  of  my  effects  and  my  body  in  case  their 
fears  were  realized,  the  more  strange  I  feel  in  the 
midst  of  the  exuberant  verdure  of  the  new  life  of 
spring  which  surrounds  me,  and  the  daily  increas- 
ing strength  which  I  feel  in  my  o^vn  body,  and, 
for  the  time  being,  feel  that  I  have  had  a  birthday 
which  for  the  moment  at  least  eclipses  that  which 
launched  me  into  life.  I  fear  that  I  write  too 
much  about  myself,  but  I  am  not  very  strong  as 

1  Bishop  Little  John  of  Long  Island  was  at  this  time  in  charge  of 
the  American  Episcopal  churches  in  Europe. 


154j     life  and  labors  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

yet  and  I  suppose  have  hardly  energy  enough  to 
lift  myself  out  of  my  own  wandering  thoughts. 
"My  illness  swept  everything  before  it  and  I 
am  better,  except  weakness,  than  I  have  been  for 
a  year."     .     .     , 

[To  Rev.  Dr.  Heman  Dyer.] 

"Meran,  Tyrol,  May  12,  1876. 
*'My  Dear  Doctor  Dyer: 

"I  think  Dr.  Potter  wrote  you  from  Venice, 
about  April  16,  of  my  illness.  I  lay  only  half 
conscious  during  the  first  week  of  my  fever  and 
it  is  a  complete  blank;  but  I  was  emerging  into 
consciousness  and  use  of  my  memory  when  Dr. 
Potter  was  with  me,  and,  if  I  am  not  much  mis- 
taken, he  wrote  to  you  for  me  to  say  how  ill  I 
had  been,  that  independent  of  my  illness  at 
Venice,  the  physicians  had  decided  that  I  must 
spend  the  summer  at  one  of  the  German  baths, 
and  that  I  could  not  be  reckoned  upon  for  work 
in  any  capacity  till  fall.  I  cannot  tell  you  what 
a  bitter  trial  this  is  to  me.  I  sent  out  circular 
letters,  such  as  the  one  I  enclose,  to  all  the  mis- 
sionaries last  February,  hoping  to  be  fully  posted 
by  their  replies  for  taking  up  my  work  on  my 
return  at  the  end  of  May.  Their  answers  have 
reached  me  and  find  me  consigned  to  continued 
absence.  I  trust  that  I  am  not  utterly  useless, 
for  I  am  in  correspondence,  as  my  strength  per- 


TRIALS  OF  BODY  AND  SPIRIT         155 

mits,  with  them  all,  seeking  to  direct  and  cheer 
them;  but  I  feel  the  hand  of  God  very  heavy 
upon  me  and  find  it  hard,  in  the  midst  of  my 
disappointment  and  mortification,  to  be  patient 
and  submissive.  I  am  recuperating  in  this  high 
but  sheltered  town  as  fast  as  man  can  and  am  in 
general  vastly  better  than  when  I  left  New 
York;  but  the  pains  of  which  you  perhaps  more 
than  once  heard  me  complain  and  which  rendered 
my  trips  in  Niobrara  sometimes  so  trying  seem 
to  the  physicians  to  proceed  from  spinal  irrita- 
tion and  it  is  to  its  treatment  that  my  summer 
must  be  devoted.     .     .     . 

"In  warmest  regard,  dear  Doctor, 

"Ever  most  faithfully  yours, 

"William  H.  Hare." 

''P.  S. — Now  for  a  few  words  with  you  your- 
self. I  don't  know  whether  you  ever  recovered 
in  springtime  from  an  illness  which  had  brought 
you  to  the  very  jaws  of  death.  If  you  did,  you 
can  understand  something  of  the  wondering,  be- 
wildered, joyous,  thankful  frame  of  mind  in 
which  I  found  myself  as  I  was  brought  away 
from  Venice,  the  scene  of  my  sickness,  where  I 
felt  that  I  had  been  almost  entombed,  and  found 
myself  speeding  away  in  the  cars  among  green 
fields  and  budding  trees  and  blossoming  shrubs, 
all  seeming  to  exult  in  the  warm  sunshine  and  to 
say  to  the  invalid,  'Behold  with  what  a  vivifying 


156     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

energy  the  Good  Creator  has  endowed  even 
plants!  You,  too,  shall  soon  feel  a  like  life 
coursing  through  your  veins  and  rejoice  to  put 
into  exercise  your  recuperated  powers.'  The 
solemn,  yet  peaceful,  lesson  of  an  illness  that 
brings  you  near  to  death,  how  precious  it  isl 
And  how  strong  the  wish  to  make  one's  recovery 
a  birth  into  a  freer,  better  and  more  filial 
life!"     .     .     . 

About  a  month  after  the  writing  of  this  letter 
he  was  joined  at  Rippoldsau  in  Germany,  to  his 
great  delight,  by  his  son,  then  nearly  fourteen 
years  old.  July  and  August  were  devoted  to  the 
further  recuperation  of  health,  on  the  continent 
and  in  England,  and  at  the  beginning  of  Sep- 
tember he  sailed  for  home.  Within  a  month 
from  landing  in  New  York,  where  it  was  possible 
at  once  to  resume  activities  on  behalf  of  his  mis- 
sion, he  was  on  his  way  to  the  Indian  country. 
During  the  journey  thither,  he  wrote  as  follows 
to  his  father-in-law : 

[To  the  Right  Rev.  M.  A.  DeW.  Howe.] 
"FiSHKiLL-ON-HuDSON,  September  24,  1876. 
"My  Dear  Bishop  Howe: 

"I  ran  up  here  last  night  to  pass  a  quiet  Sun- 
day with  my  aunt  and  found  your  letter  of  the 
21st. 


TRIALS  OF  BODY  AND  SPIRIT         157 

"How  glad  I  was  to  receive  it  and  to  see  in  it 
the  evidence  of  your  affection  and  solicitude  for 
my  health  I  cannot  tell  you,  and  what  you  will 
say  to  me  when  I  reveal  to  you  the  fact  that  this 
note,  which  I  was  obliged  to  lay  aside  just  after 
beginning  it,  I  am  finishing  in  Chicago  where  I 
am  resting  on  my  way  to  Niobrara,  I  do  not 
know. 

"But,  believe  me,  I  weighed  well  the  con- 
siderations against  my  immediate  return  to  my 
work  which  you  urged  in  your  letter,  and  those 
which  were  pressed  upon  me  by  other  friends 
(amongst  them  the  Presiding  Bishop,  and  Dr. 
Dyer,  the  Chairman  of  the  Indian  Commission). 
On  the  other  side  were  these  considerations ;  that 
the  Mission  was  exposed  by  reason  of  the  critical 
condition  of  Indian  affairs  to  many  dangers  and 
needed  my  presence ;  that  the  brethren  and  sisters 
in  it  were  expecting  me  and  I  longed  to  do  some- 
thing to  cheer  and  comfort  them ;  that  mortifica- 
tion at  having  come  so  far  short  of  what  the 
Church  expected  of  me  when  she  sent  me  out  was 
gnawing  at  my  heart  and  confusing  my  face 
when  I  met  my  brethren  at  the  East ;  that,  while 
I  might  be  of  some  use  in  the  Board  of  Missions 
and  House  of  Bishops,  a  man  can  generally  best 
serve  the  Church  in  general  by  looking  well  to 
his  own  special  work;  and,  finally,  that  the 
months  which  are  now  flying  by  are  those  in 


158     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

which  I  can  travel  in  Niobrara  with  least  in  jury- 
to  my  health. 

"Pray  do  not  think  me  disregardful  of  your 
advice.  I  may  have  mistaken  views  of  duty,  but 
I  have  done  my  best  to  find  my  way  after  hav- 
ing entered  into  my  closet  and  shut  to  the  door. 

"If  an  opportunity  oiFers  I  beg  that  you  will 
let  the  Bishops  know  how  much  I  have  dwelt  in 
hours  of  pain  upon  their  kind  consideration  for 
me  last  fall  and  of  how  much  service  to  me  my 
absence  has  been. 

"In  warm  affection, 

"Yours  most  sincerely, 

"William  H.  Haee. 

"Chicago,  October  7,  1876." 

In  the  month  after  returning  to  his  work  he 
wrote  a  letter  which  may  fitly  bring  this  episode 
of  physical  trials  to  a  close : 

[To  Miss  E.  N.  Biddle.] 
"Yankton  Ag'y,  November  23,  1876. 
"My  Very  Dear  Friend: 

"I  must  begin  a  letter  the  very  moment  I  have 
finished  reading  yours  of  the  12th  to  utter  the 
thought  which  springs  from  my  head  and  heart. 
Never  let  a  shadow  of  a  shadow  rest  upon  your 
mind  because  j^^ou  had  a  share  in  sending  me  out 
here.     *It  was  not  you  that  sent  me  but  God.' 


TRIALS  OF  BODY  AND  SPIRIT  159 

I  never  doubted  this  except  when  in  hours  of 
distress  or  spiritual  weakness  my  faith  was 
clouded,  and  just  so  long  as  the  conviction  dwells 
in  my  mind  that  He  who  sent  me  here  wills  that 
I  should  staj^  I  trust  that  I  shall  have  grace  to 
stay,  by  the  help  of  many  prayers  of  you  and 
such  as  yours.  Never  did  I  take  up  an}i:hing 
in  my  life  more  from  the  action  of  my  own  soul, 
weak  and  evil  as  it  is,  than  I  took  up  this  work. 
I  chanced  upon  a  copy  of  a  letter  the  other  day 
which  I  wrote  when  I  was  passing  out  of  my 
struggle  into  the  conviction  that  God  meant  me 
to  leave  the  Foreign  Secretaryship  for  the  In- 
dian w^ork — I  enclose  it;  you  may  care  to  see  it. 
It  will  at  least  indicate  that  if  I  made  a  mistake 
it  was  my  own. 

"Very  much  distressed  I  have  often  been,  I 
confess,  for  humanly  speaking  a  stronger  man  is 
needed  for  this  field,  and  I  have  had  hard  work 
to  keep  my  head  above  water,  and  then,  as  the 
Church  can  never  know  just  what  exposure  and 
mishaps  and  dangers  I  have  undergone  because 
I  cannot  parade  these  things,  I  have  feared  that 
the  Church  was  weary  of  an  instrument  which 
did  not  meet  its  expectations.  Yes,  all  sorts  of 
spiritual  conflict  I  have  had;  but  I  know  that  I 
desei've  to  be  cast  off  by  God  and  made  use  of 
no  more;  but  use  me  He  does  and  I  bless  His 
name. 


160     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

"I  was  never  more  hopeful  in  regard  to  the 
work  here  than  I  am  to-day  and  shall  come  East 
feeling  stronger  and  bolder  to  speak  in  behalf  of 
the  work  than  ever.  It  seems  wise  that  I  should 
spend  the  winter  East  for  the  work's  sake  (i.  e., 
for  sympathy  and  money's  sake),  and  for  my 
own  health  which  is  better  than  it  has  been  for 
two  years,  and  which  I  wish  to  keep  so. 

"With  much  love  to  your  sister, 

"Your  affectionate  friend, 

"W.  H.  Hare." 

"This  is  a  very  gushing  letter,  but  you  will 
understand  it." 

Before  the  following  year,  1877,  was  far  ad- 
vanced, a  proposal  came  to  Bishop  Hare  from, 
the  East  not  to  abridge  but  to  increase  his  ac- 
tivities. It  was  suggested  that  he  should  assume 
the  superintendency  of  St.  Luke's  Hospital  in 
New  York,  recently  made  vacant  by  the  death 
of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Muhlenberg,  and  should  devote 
such  time  to  the  work  as  he  could  spare  from  liis 
duties  in  the  Indian  country.  "I  am  extremely 
interested,"  he  wrote  to  a  friend  a  few  days  after 
receiving  Sister  Anne's  letter  broaching  the  sub- 
ject, "in  woman's  work  and  in  the  organization 
of  it  for  the  good  of  man";  but  when  he  was 
duly  elected  to  the  post  and  gave  it  his  full  con- 
sideration, it  was  decided  that  he  should  confine 


TRIALS  OF  BODY  AND  SPIRIT         161 

himself  exclusively  to  liis  chosen  field.  This  was 
probablj^  a  fortunate  decision,  for  an  overwhelm- 
ing trial  of  his  spirit,  calling  for  all  his  outward 
and  inward  strength,  was  about  to  be  made. 

As  a  consequence  of  events  culminating  in 
1878,  Bishop  Hare  became  the  defendant  in  a 
suit  for  libel.  At  first  the  plaintiff  won  it,  then 
the  verdict  was  reversed,  and  subsequently  the 
case  was  dropped  by  consent  of  plaintiff  and  de- 
fendant. It  would  be  utterly  unprofitable  at 
tliis  time  to  repeat  and  revive  the  whole  unsavory 
story  of  the  controversy^  But  the  painful  epi- 
sode bore  so  important  a  part  in  the  life  of 
Bishop  Hare  that  it  cannot  be  ignored.  When 
he  learned  in  1895  that  a  brief  sketch  of  his  life 
was  on  the  point  of  preparation,  he  wrote  to  the 
author  of  the  book  which  was  to  contain  it: 
"You  will,  of  course,  understand  that  I  do  not 
wish  at  all  that  any  notice  should  be  taken  of 

the  H case;  it  is  dead  and  buried,  and  he, 

too,  has  passed  away — de  mortuis  nil  nisi 
honutn."  The  requirements  of  a  brief  sketch 
and  of  a  comprehensive  biography  are  different. 
The  present  narrative  wall  confine  itself  to  a  bare 
statement  of  accessible  facts,  supplemented  by 
hitherto  unpublished  passages  from  private  let- 
ters. Since  the  plaintiff  in  the  suit  is  here  to  be 
considered  only  with  reference  to  Bishop  Hare, 
it  seems  sufficient,  and  in  keeping  with  the  spirit 


162     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

of  the  de  mortuis  injunction,  to  identify  him 
merely  as  ]Mr.  H. 

Bishop  Hare  had  been  in  Niobrara  but  a  short 
time  when  disturbing  rumors  about  one  of  his 
most  conspicuous  missionaries  came  to  his  ears. 
On  October  3,  1873,  he  wrote  to  his  sister:  "I 
wrote  JMother  on  Sunday  last  from  Santee. 
Since  then  a  cloud,  which  has  hung  over  my  soul 
for  three  or  four  months,  arising  from  charges 
involving  the  character  of  Mr.  H.  has  been 
dispelled  by  a  prolonged  inquiry  by  Bishop 
AVhipple  and  Clarkson  and  me,  which  ended  in 
his  vindication,  and  for  the  first  time  in  many 
weary  weeks  my  heart  is  light."  An  Omaha 
paper  contained  a  humorous  account  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  three  bishops  were  rowed  across 
the  Missouri  River,  to  their  conference  in  a  wind 
"of  which  it  might  be  said  that  a  man  would 
rather  face  it  'per  alium'  than  face  it  'per  se.'  " 
The  hearty  welcome  and  good  cheer  which  met 
them  on  the  farther  side  soon  made  them  "for- 
get the  cheerlessness  and  the  chill,  and  the  peril 
of  their  crossing."  It  was  a  good  omen  for  the 
result  of  the  investigation,  and  for  several  years 
Bishop  Hare  and  Mr.  H.  worked  together  in 
unity.  Indeed,  the  presbyter's  knowledge  and 
experience  of  Indian  affairs  were  often  of  the 
greatest  service  to  the  bishop  and  his  work.  In 
April  of  1877,  he  wrote  to  his  friend.  Dr.  Dyer, 


TRIALS  OF  BODY  AND  SPIRIT         163 

in  complaint  of  the  shortcomings  of  one  of  the 
pieces  of  work  in  charge  of  his  subordinate: 
"^Vll  tilings  considered,  I  think  that  the  course 
to  be  pursued  is  to  use  Mr.  H.  and  not  to  fling 
him  off.  He  is  a  peculiar  man,  and  can't  be 
made  to  lie  straight  in  a  pile  of  sticks,  but  still 
there  is  good  fuel  in  him.  I  shall  spare  no  effort 
to  make  it  burn  for  God,  though  in  the  effort  I 
do  burn  my  fingers  sometimes." 

The  effort  continued  for  nearly  a  year  more, 
and  then,  persuaded  at  last  in  his  heart  that  the 
work  of  the  mission  was  suffering  grievous  in- 
jury through  Mr.  H.'s  connection  with  it.  Bishop 
Hare  exercised  his  authority  to  bring  that  con- 
nection abruptly  to  an  end.  A  persistent  disre- 
gard of  pecuniary  obligations  and  an  evil  report 
in  the  neighborhood  were  given  to  ]\Ir.  H.,  in  a 
letter  of  JMarch  25,  1878,  as  the  specific  reasons 
for  the  severance  of  relations — an  action  taken,  in 
the  words  of  Bishop  Hare,  "only  from  a  sense 
of  duty  and  with  the  most  painful  reluctance." 
A  few  days  later  (April  5,  1878),  he  wi'ote  to 
Dr.  Dyer  from  a  feriyboat  on  the  Missouri 
River:  "JMr.  H.'s  connection  with  the  Mis- 
sion was  severed  last  Monday,  week.  ...  I 
am  thankful  for  deliverance  from  his  presence 
thus  easily  obtained.  Every  day's  experience 
adds  to  my  conviction  that  my  action  was  right 
and  that,  when  the  first  shock  is  over,  the  gain 


164     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

to  the  JNIission  will  be  tremendous.  Only  let  the 
Church  in  the  East  confide  in  my  integrity  and 
good  sense,  I  fear  nothing  here.  ...  I  ex- 
pect a  painful  time,  for  H.  does  not  renounce 
his  ministry  and  it  looks  as  if  I  shall  have  to 
bring  him  to  trial.  ...  I  have  felt  some- 
times as  if  I  should  die  of  a  broken  heart;  but 
the  Master  had  in  Judas  a  sorrow  like  mine." 
About  a  month  later  (on  May  8),  he  wrote  to 
Miss  Biddle:  "Mr.  H.'s  case  ahnost  broke 
me  down.  I  had  some  return  of  ominous  symp- 
toms during  some  trying  days,  trying  to  the  body 
because  of  the  weather,  and  trying  to  the  mind 
and  heart  for  another  reason;  but  I  am  better 
now,  and  quite  at  peace  in  my  own  heart  in  the 
conviction  that  I  have  acted  wisely  and  that  I 
have  relieved  the  JNIission  of  a  horrible  incubus. 
Mr.  H.  has  demanded  a  trial,  and  one  has  been 
appointed  for  June  4."  On  May  29,  he  wrote 
in  the  coui'se  of  a  letter  to  Bishop  Howe:  "I 
trust  that  Mrs.  Howe  and  all  your  family  are 
well.  How  delightful  and  sustaining  it  is  to 
tliink  of  the  quiet  innocence  of  a  Christian  home 
in  these  days,  when  faith  in  goodness  receives 
such  shocks !  God  be  thanked  that  I  have  known 
so  well  so  many  good  women,  and  that  so  many 
home  circles  are  adorned  by  them  where  I  am 
welcomed,  wliich,  by  a  little  effort  of  the  im- 
agination, seem  to  me  right  at  hand!     I  should 


TRIALS  OF  BODY  AND  SPIRIT         165 

be  like  a  man  asphyxiated  in  a  cesspool,  so  much 
that  is  loathsome  submerges  me  here,  but  that  the 
recollection  of  such  scenes,  and  of  Him  by  whose 
grace  they  exist,  enables  me  to  keep  my  head  in 
the  pure  air." 

A  court  of  presbyters,  appointed  to  meet  on 
June  4,  for  the  trial  of  Mr.  H.,  assembled  in 
July,  and  adjourned  after  taking  measures  for 
the  securing  of  testimony.  Several  attempts 
were  subsequently  made,  both  by  Bishop  Hare 
and  Mr.  H.,  to  bring  the  matter  to  a  conclu- 
sion; but,  partly  through  the  difficulty  of  bring- 
ing together  at  one  time  and  place  missionaries 
so  widely  separated  as  those  of  Niobrara,  these 
efforts  were  not  successful.  The  court  indeed 
rendered  a  verdict  of  guilty  on  three  important 
points,  but  since  the  sentence  of  deposition  which 
it  pronounced  lacked,  in  Bishop  Hare's  opinion, 
"formal  completeness  and  technical  validity"  no 
disciplinary  measures  were  taken.  Whereupon 
Mr.  H.  laid  his  case,  in  a  letter  of  March  1, 1879, 
before  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the  Domestic 
and  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  detailing  his 
grievances  and  making  what  were  afterwards 
defined  as  "false,  defamatory  and  calumnious 
charges"  regarding  Bishop  Hare's  action.  This 
letter  was  soon  afterwards  printed  in  a  pamphlet 
and  widely  circulated. 

To  sit  silent  under  the  accusations  of  this  pam- 


166     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

phlet  would  have  seemed  almost  a  confession  of 
wrong-doing.  Accordingly  Bishop  Hare  took 
the  occasion  to  write  what  he  called  a  ^'Rehearsal 
of  Facts"  addressed  to  the  Bishops  of  the  Church 
and  the  other  members  of  the  Board  of  JMan- 
agers  of  the  Missionary  Society.  This  state- 
ment set  forth  in  detail  the  grave  offenses  against 
morality  credibly  imputed  to  Mr.  H.  through- 
out the  Indian  country.  It  was  shown  to  be 
based  upon  testimony  which  Bishop  Hare,  as 
head  of  the  mission,  could  not  possibly  ignore. 
It  exhibited  a  state  of  affairs  completely  injuri- 
ous, in  its  effects,  to  the  work  of  the  mission — 
a  state  of  affairs  which  the  official  in  charge  of 
the  work  could  not  have  permitted  to  continue 
without  an  unpardonable  neglect  of  his  duty. 
Bishop  Hare  had  recently  introduced  a  hand 
printing-press  at  St.  Paul's  School,  Yankton 
Agency,  and,  without  any  more  modern  appli- 
ances within  reach  for  the  limited  circulation  of 
his  "Rehearsal,"  to  which  he  gave  the  heading 
"Private,"  employed  this  press  for  his  immediate 
purpose.  Here,  perhaps,  Avas  a  mistake.  It 
may  have  been  another  to  mail  the  "Rehearsal" 
to  a  few  deeply  interested  friends,  not  more  than 
eight,  beside  the  officials  for  whom  it  was  pri- 
marily^ intended.  Whatever  injury  may  have 
been  done  to  Mr.  H.  by  this  action  was  vastly 
extended  by  the  printing  and  wide  circulation 


TRIALS  OF  BODY  AND  SPIRIT         167 

of  a  reply  from  the  discharged  missionary  to  the 
"Rehearsal  of  Facts"  in  which  the  "Rehearsal" 
itself  was  reprinted  entire. 

The  next  step  in  the  wretched  business  trans- 
ferred it  from  the  field  of  ecclesiastical  to  that 
of  civil  dispute.  In  February  of  1880  Mr.  H. 
brought  suit  against  Bishop  Hare  in  New  York 
State  for  libel,  charging  a  mahcious  intent  in  the 
publication  of  the  "Rehearsal  of  Facts,"  and 
claiming  damages  of  twenty-five  thousand  dol- 
lars. The  case  was  tried  in  New  York.  Bishop 
Hare's  defense,  as  the  Judge  summed  it  up,  was 
"in  substance,  that  the  publication  of  wliich  com- 
plaint is  made,  was  privileged,  that  it  was  made 
in  good  faith,  and  was  justified  by  the  occasion 
or  the  circumstances  under  wliich  it  was  prepared 
and  published."  But  the  difficulty  of  establish- 
ing by  witnesses  in  New  York  what  Bishop  Hare 
had  fully  believed  to  be  true  in  Niobrara  were  too 
great.  The  jury  had  to  cope  with  a  mass  of 
revolting  evidence,  with  the  intricacies  of  the 
law  of  libel,  with  fine-spun  definitions  of  malice 
and  good  faith — and  the  result  of  its  delibera- 
tions was  a  verdict  against  Bishop  Hare,  but 
reducing  the  damages  to  ten  thousand  dollars. 

The  case  was  immediately  appealed,  but  while 
the  verdict  stood  the  situation  was  nearly  intol- 
erable. One  humiliation  was  that  Bishop  Hare 
could  not  set  foot  upon  New  York  soil  except 


168     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

between  midnight  of  Saturday  and  Sunday. 
Another  lay  in  the  consciousness  that  there  were 
those  within  the  Church  who,  reaHzing  the  neces- 
sity under  which  Bishop  Hare  had  acted,  yet 
questioned  seriously  the  wisdom  of  the  precise 
course  his  action  took.  As  he  had  told  the  Indian 
chief  of  early  days  to  wait  and  see  how  the  mis- 
sionaries lived,  so  he  must  justify  his  own  course 
by  the  patience  and  dignity  with  which  he  should 
abide  its  results.  The  people  of  his  mission  rose 
loyally  to  his  support.  A  letter  signed  with 
more  than  fifty  names  of  various  significance  in 
the  Indian  country  struck  no  uncertain  note: 
"We  intend  by  this  letter  to  assure  you  of  our 
undiminished  faith  in  the  righteousness  of  your 
cause,  and  of  our  united  sympathy  with  you  in 
this  hour  of  trial.  .  .  .  To  us  you  seem  to 
have  been  actuated  by  the  best  motives,  and,  in 
the  face  of  constant  vexatious  opposition,  ^with 
great  personal  sacrifices  and  reluctance  of  the 
natural  man,  to  have  persevered  unflinchingly  in 
what  you  believed  to  be  (and  what  it  seems  to 
us  clearly  was)  your  duty."  A  member  of  the 
Mission,  recently  recalling  the  days  of  direst  trial, 
has  written:  "We  believed  he  suffered  physically 
from  it,  the  strain  upon  him  seemed  to  age  him 
ten  years  in  six  months'  time,  when  our  constant 
prayer  was,  'O  Lord,  help  us  to  justify  our 
Bishop  in  tliis  trial' — and  the  effort  that  was  made 


TRIALS  OF  BODY  AND  SPIRIT         169 

he  ever  deeply  appreciated."  There  were  other 
sacrifices  than  those  of  the  spirit.  His  slender 
means  were  severely  taxed,  in  spite  of  the  gen- 
erous fund  raised  by  friends  to  meet  legal  ex- 
penses. In  the  summer  of  1882  he  sold  his  horses 
and  wrote  to  his  sister:  "The  privilege  of  suing 
and  being  sued  is  very  precious — and  very  ex- 
pensive." Through  it  all  he  bore  himself  with 
true  manfulness.  A  passage  from  his  Tenth 
Annual  Report  (1882)  adequately  represents  his 
position : 

"The  hbel  suit  to  which  I  was  subjected  last 
spring  by  a  Presbyter,  formerly  a  Missionary  of 
the  Board,  has  forced  upon  me  a  painful  noto- 
riety", and  has  doubtless  made  my  reputation 
equivocal  with  some  whose  esteem  is  to  be  valued. 

"Far  more  important,  however,  than  the  ques- 
tion what  others  will  think  of  one,  is  the  question 
what  one  thinks  of  oneself.  Tf  our  heart  con- 
demn us  not,  then  have  we  confidence  towards 
God.' 

"While  sensible  of  my  shortcomings,  and  not 
doubting  that  I  might  have  acted  more  wisely  in 
some  minor  points,  I  beheve  that  in  a  case  of 
extraordinary  complications  and  difficulties,  I 
acted  with  at  least  ordinary  wisdom.  Conscious 
of  rectitude  of  intei^!:,  firmly*  persuaded  that  the 
course  which  I  pursued  was  in  all  its  substantial 
points  required  by  the  condition  of  things  by 


170     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

which  I  was  confronted,  and  that  it  has  been  con- 
ducive in  its  issue  to  the  purit)^  and  healthfulness 
of  the  Mission,  I  review  the  past  with  an  uplift- 
ing satisfaction.  And  as  for  my  reputation,  I 
leave  that  without  a  doubt  to  time,  which  is  a 
great  revealer,  and  to  that  larger  jury  which, 
after  all,  ultimately  decides  in  all  such  contro- 
versies as  this." 

Five  years  had  to  pass  before  the  controversy 
was  finally  settled.  In  the  New  York  Court  of 
Appeals  the  Judge  reversed  the  decision  of  the 
lower  court  and  recommended  that  the  case  be 
"left  to  the  wise  and  judicious  arbitrament  of 
mutual  friends."  Accordingly  in  1887  it  was 
agreed  that  both  plaintiff  and  defendant  should 
appear  personally  or  by  counsel  before  the  Pre- 
siding Bishop,  agreeing  to  sign  any  paper  which 
he,  after  mature  dehberation,  might  draw  up. 
The  essential  result  of  the  arbitration  was  that 
Bishop  Hare  signed  a  paper  containing  his  decla- 
ration that  while  the  acts  imputed  to  Mr.  H. 
"were  not  established  at  the  first  trial,  I,  never- 
theless, fully  believed  the  testimony  on  which  they 
were  reported  to  me  to  be  credible,  and  thought 
them,  and  think  now,  that,  with  my  convictions 
of  duty,  I  could  not  do  otherwise  than  beheve 
and  act  on  it."  In  the  paper  signed  by  Mr.  H. 
he  asserted  liis  "innocence  of  all  the  imputations 
contained  in  the  Rehearsal,"  yet  declared,  "I  have 


TRIALS  OF  BODY  AND  SPIRIT         171 

no  doubt  that  Bishop  Hare  has  fully  believed 
me  to  be  guilty  and  has  acted  on  that  belief." 

Nine  years  of  scandal  and  vexation  of  spirit 
were  thus  brought  to  an  end  by  means  so  simple 
that  one  can  only  marvel  and  lament  that  they 
were  not  employed  at  the  beginning.  So  far  as 
Bishop  Hare  himself  was  concerned,  the  scars 
of  the  experience  were  endm'ing.  The  letter  of 
1895,  already  quoted,  set  forth  his  later  view  of 
the  whole  matter.  It  was  so  obviously  written 
for  private  reading  that  a  single  further  passage 
is  all  that  should  be  taken  from  it:  "I  shall  never 
recover  from  the  tremendous  strain  to  which  that 
libel  suit  subjected  me,  nor  from  the  pecuniar}^ 
loss;  for  it  cost  me  $12,000  in  law^^ers'  and  wit- 
ness fees,  over  and  above  what  my  friends  con- 
tributed; and  for  years  it  sadly  injured  my  good 
name.  Perhaps  as  we  grow  older  and  feel  that 
we  shall  leave  our  reputation  at  the  mercy  of 
posterity,  we  become  more  solicitous  about  it,  and 
perhaps  this  is  the  explanation  of  my  venturing 
this  letter." 

Still  later,  even  in  his  final  illness,  he  said  one 
day  to  his  son:  "If  I  had  been  an  older  man,  I 
suppose  I  should  have  done  it  differently;  but" 
— raising  himself  up  on  his  bed — "it  was  my 
duty,  and  I  am  glad  I  did  it." 


VI 

THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVH^IZATION 

1878-1883 

THE  year  1878  marked  no  line  of  division 
between  primitive  and  more  civilized  con- 
ditions, no  turning  point  from  the  hardships  of 
early  days  in  Niobrara  and  the  handicaps  of  body 
and  spirit  to  a  more  comfortably  ordered  life. 
It  was  only  a  milestone  on  the  way  towards  bet- 
ter things,  though  a  milestone  marking  a  mem- 
orable ordeal.  By  1878  the  religious  and  social 
work  for  the  Indians  was  merely  well  begun. 
The  great  influx  of  white  settlers,  which  within 
the  next  decade  was  to  introduce  a  new  order 
in  South  Dakota  and  to  call  for  many  readjust- 
ments, was  still  in  its  early  stages. 

The  reader  of  the  preceding  chapters  will 
therefore  be  quick  to  understand  that  in  contin- 
uing the  narrative  of  Bishop  Hare's  many  and 
widely  varied  activities  it  would  be  impossible,  in 
any  reasonable  space,  to  follow  his  work  year 
by  year,  school  by  school,  mission  by  mission. 
The  best  one  can  do  is  to  present  specimen  in- 

172 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVH^IZATION     173 

stances  of  the  way  in  which  he  dealt  with  a  mul- 
tiphcity  of  problems,  and,  avoiding  an  avalanche 
of  details,  to  gain,  if  possible,  some  impression 
of  the  spirit  underlying  all  his  work  and  of  the 
general  results  it  accomplished. 

Of  many  a  problem  with  which  he  was  con- 
fronted, it  might  tmly  have  been  said,  solvitur 
ambulando.  Indeed,  the  very  solution  often  lay 
in  moving  from  place  to  place.  When  we  read, 
for  example,  in  his  Annual  Report  for  1880,  that 
his  spring  and  summer  visitations  involved  him 
in  two  thousand  miles  of  traveling  in  his  own 
wagon,  besides  not  a  little  stage-coaching,  we  can 
realize  into  what  obscure  and  remote  corners  he 
was  carrying  his  message.  In  these  pilgrimages 
across  the  unbroken  prairies,  where  for  days 
together  he  could  travel  without  seeing  a  single 
person  or  habitation,  there  were  inevitably  the 
best  of  opportunities  for  searching  thought  about 
the  nature  of  his  work,  and  its  fullest  accomplish- 
ment. 

"The  Bishop's  traveling  equipage,"  wrote  one 
of  his  mission  workers.  Miss  Elaine  Goodale 
(now  Mrs.  Charles  A.  Eastman)  in  The  Inde- 
pendent immediately  after  accompanying  him  on 
a  journey  in  1885,  "is  famous  for  the  perfection 
of  its  simplicity.  Absolute  neatness,  immutable 
order,  entire  absence  of  the  superfluous  and  com- 
plete success  in  essentials — these  are  its  character- 


174     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

istics.  Certainly  the  Bishop  has  mastered  in  all 
its  details  the  art  of  traveling  on  the  plains !"  A 
two-horse  wagon,  a  small  tent,  the  simplest  cook- 
ing utensils  were  the  chief  necessities.  "The 
labor  of  'making  camp,' "  to  revert  to  Miss 
Goodale's  description,  "is  very  quickly  and  skill- 
fully performed,  under  the  Bishop's  military  di- 
rection." There  were  times  when  the  weariness 
from  a  long  day's  drive  was  such  that  Bishop 
Hare  must  first  of  all  spread  a  horse-blanket  on 
the  ground  and  rest  his  aching  back.  These  were 
probably  the  times  when  he  was  not  accompanied 
by  guests,  as  in  the  journey  described  by  Miss 
Goodale.  More  frequently  his  sole  companions 
were  his  driver  and  perhaps  an  interpreter.  In 
a  letter  to  his  sister,  dated  "In  Camp,  Chaine 
La  Roche,  June  13"  (1881),  there  is  a  typical 
glimpse  at  the  conditions  under  which  his  travel- 
ing was  done: 

"I  am  sitting  under  my  wagon  at  noon,  having 
tliis  morning  left  the  Upper  Church  of  the  Crow 
Creek  Mission  on  my  way  to  the  jMission  and 
Boarding  School  on  the  Cheyenne  River  Reserve. 
I  left  Yankton  Agency  last  Tuesday  and,  but 
for  mosquitoes,  which  have  made  sleep  almost 
impossible,  have  had  a  pretty  comfortable  trip. 

"M}^  company  consists  of  only  my  driver  and 
my  interpreter,  the  former  a  white  man  whom  I 
picked  up  last  Fall  and  the  latter  a  half-brQcd. 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILIZATION      175 

I  am  struck,  as  often  before,  with  the  superiority 
of  the  latter  in  everything  which  makes  one  a  tol- 
erable companion.  The  language  and  demeanor 
of  the  common  white  man  are  low  enough.  The 
Indian  half-breeds  who  have  been  brought  up  in 
connection  with  the  JMission  have  learned  better 
manners  and  habits  and  are  altogether  more 
agreeable.  After  all,  anyone,  whether  white  man 
or  Indian,  needs  to  be  pretty  unexceptionable  not 
to  be  an  annoyance  when  you  have  to  eat  with 
him,  etc.,  and  have  him  all  day  long  as  a  constant 
companion.  I  find  it  hard  to  take  the  trial 
sweetly!" 

Six  days  later  he  wrote  from  Cheyenne  Re- 
serve, also  to  his  sister:  "I  have  been  on  a  trip 
now  for  ten  days  or  more,  a  fairly  comfortable 
one,  though  a  heavy  storm  of  wind  and  rain  blew 
my  tent  down  over  my  head  last  Tuesday  night 
and  gave  me  hours  of  work  and  much  wretched- 
ness, and  my  horse  balked  in  the  middle  of  the 
Cheyenne  River  on  Friday  last  as  I  was  fording 
it,  broke  the  single-tree  loose  and  left  me  in  the 
middle  of  the  rapidly  running  stream  with  the 
water  running  into  my  wagon-box.  But  such  ills 
are  the  concomitants  of  travel  out  here,  and  I 
am  used  to  them." 

One  of  the  older  South  Dakota  clergy,  the 
Rev.  John  Robinson,  has  recalled  in  a  recent  let- 
ter some  of  these  "concomitants":     "I  saw  him 


176     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

in  the  rough  and  tumble  of  it,  much  the  same  as 
ourselves  as  we  camped  together;  shutting  him- 
self up  tight  in  his  one  pole  cone-shaped  tent 
known  as  a  'Sibley  tent'  in  the  hot  summer  nights 
to  escape  the  torture  of  the  mosquitoes;  enjoy- 
ing a  bath  in  the  clear  stream.  Yes,  we  all 
knew  that  if  mice  nibbled  at  our  hair  in  the 
night,  or  that  if  we  were  liable  to  be  roused  from 
our  slumber  to  see  rats  playing  tag  over  our 
drowsy  forms,  our  Bishop  was  liable  to  the  same 
treatment." 

Further  details  of  discomfort  are  provided  by 
a  frequent  fellow-traveler  with  Bishop  Hare:  "It 
must  be  remembered  that  almost  every  night 
during  the  summer  the  mosquitoes  wherever  we 
camped  were  incredibly  thick,  causing  quite  as 
much  annoyance  in  one's  nose,  mouth  and  ears 
as  by  biting,  and  sometimes  so  thick  in  the  air 
that  you  could  grasp  them  by  rolling  the  fingers 
down  in  the  palm  of  the  hand  and  having  a  roll 
of  dead  mosquitoes  in  each  pahn.  In  other 
words,  they  were  almost  as  thick  as  the  grass  on 
the  ground.  On  one  or  two  occasions,  when  we 
inadvertent^  camped  where  Indians  had  pre- 
ceded us,  our  blankets  became  infested  ^,vith  fleas, 
and  we  had  to  stay  up  all  night  in  a  wagon  in 
our  coats,  nearly  freezing  to  death.  The  water 
holes  in  the  various  dry  creeks  which  we  had  to 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILIZATION      177 

make,  sometimes  by  forced  marches,  were  cov- 
ered with  an  iridescent  scum  w^hich  had  to  be 
pushed  aside  before  the  water  was  dipped  up. 
Of  course,  none  of  it  could  be  drunk,  but  had  to 
be  boiled  and  taken  in  the  form  of  boiled  coffee, 
and  the  cup  of  coffee  was  nearly  always  iridescent 
on  its  surface." 

But  enough  of  these  petty  annoyances,  of 
which  it  is  only  to  be  said  that  the  sufficient 
accumulation  of  mole-hills  in  the  pathway  of  any 
one  person  may  be  far  worse  than  one  or  two 
honest  mountains  to  be  climbed.  The  conditions 
themselves,  the  general  forlornness  of  life, 
whether  in  camp  or  within  four  walls,  are  real- 
ized more  through  the  reports  of  others  than  from 
the  incidental  references  which  Bishop  Hare  made 
to  them.  From  him  we  gain,  instead,  an  impres- 
sion of  satisfaction  and  triumph  in  the  progress 
of  an  absorbing  cause  on  behalf  of  which  "the 
day's  work"  necessarily  involved  the  coping  with 
many  minor  obstacles.  We  may  well  turn,  there- 
fore, to  some  of  his  own  renderings  of  adven- 
tiu'es  by  the  way  and  of  the  solution  of  problems 
in  the  very  act  of  moving  about  liis  jurisdiction. 
An  old  saying  which  appealed  to  him  so  strongly 
that  he  took  it  for  a  guide  in  daily  conduct — "In 
woe,  bold  out;  in  joy,  hold  in" — will  be  found  to 
receive  frequent  and  forcible  illustrations. 


178     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

Writing,  on  June  10,  1878,  from  Yankton 
Agency  to  his  sister  IMary,  he  describes  a  typical 
experience : 

"I  had  a  very  hard  drive  down,  but,  in  spite 
of  all  hindrances  and  trials,  reached  my  destina- 
tion tcell,  though  exhausted.  One  night  I  had 
to  drive  till  midnight.  The  horses  were  high- 
spirited  animals,  and  it  was  all  that  the  driver 
could  do  to  hold  them.  We  plunged  along ;  once 
I  was  thrown  out  as  the  wagon  half  keeled  over, 
but  we  reached  the  creek  where  we  were  to  camp 
just  at  midnight  without  mishap.  A  heavy  storm 
was  gathering  behind  us  and  hurried  us  on,  and 
it  was  with  intense  relief  that  I  found  that  we 
had  at  last  reached  a  pitch  in  the  road  which  I 
recognized  as  the  descent  to  the  stream.  A 
vacant  and  half -roofless  log  cabin  was  to  be  our 
refuge  for  the  night ;  but,  fortunately,  we  found 
a  tent  pitched  by  the  road.  ]VIy  driver,  a  rough, 
good-hearted  young  soldier,  called  out,  'Who's 
there?  Got  any  room  in  there?  I  am  carrying 
a  Bishop  down  the  country ;  the  old  gentleman  ^ 
can't  stand  roughing  it  as  well  as  I  do.  Can  you 
take  him  in?'  His  care  for  me  was  very  touch- 
ing. I  waited  for  a  reply  with  mingled  feel- 
ings. Behind  me  was  the  growling  storm,  be- 
fore me  the  prospect  of  crawling  into  a  small 
tent  and  sharing  the  blanket  of  some  man  of 

1  Bishop  Hare  was  then  forty  years  old. 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILIZATION      179 

whose  antecedents,  habits,  etc.,  I  knew  nothing. 
A  good-natured  voice  answered,  'Yes,  come  in, 
as  many  as  want  to,'  and  in  I  crept,  thankfulness 
in  my  heart  for  a  cover,  struggHng  with  nausea 
in  my  stomach  at  the  thought  of  my  bed-fellow 
(or  blanket-fellow,  rather).  Well,  it  is  all  over 
now.  I  wish  I  could  tell  you  all  the  funny  and 
the  trj^ing  adventures  which  came  to  me,  but  I 
haven't  time." 

In  the  December,  1878,  number  of  Anpao, 
where  many  of  Bishop  Hare's  communications 
to  the  Church  through  TJie  Spirit  of  Missions 
and  otherwise  were  reprinted,  there  is  a  letter 
describing  a  visit  to  the  Santee  Indians,  who  were 
attempting  to  live  as  white  men  at  Flandreau. 
His  earlier  effort  to  visit  them,  and  his  finding 
refuge  from  a  snowstorm  in  a  cabin  crowded  with 
a  surprise-party,  will  be  recalled  as  an  episode  of 
the  fu'st  years  in  Niobrara.  This  letter  of  1878, 
after  describing  the  excellent  progress  made  by 
the  Indians  at  Flandreau,  proceeds  with  a  state- 
ment of  what  Bishop  Hare  calls  "The  Other 
Side": 

"I  fear  the  people  at  the  East  are  weary  with 
the  whole  Indian  question,  so  incessantly  are  dis- 
couraging pictures  of  its  condition  held  up  to 
their  gaze.  It  must  be  remembered  that  it  is  only 
the  sensational  side  of  the  story,  i.  e.,  the  lawless 
or  criminal,  which  purveyors  for  the  public  prints 


180     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

find  it  profitable  to  herald.  An  Indian  scare  is 
always  thrilling;  dissensions  in  Spotted  Tail's 
camp  merit  a  flaming  heading  in  a  sensational 
newspaper.  But  how  many  care  to  note  that  in 
the  midst  of  all  this  dissension  and  disorder  a 
clergyman,  a  sister,  and  two  day-school  teachers 
have  been  devotedly  working;  that  school  has 
been  carried  on  morning,  afternoon  and  evening 
with  an  average  attendance  of  over  sixty;  that 
solace  has  been  carried  to  the  sick  and  discon- 
solate; that  congregations  of  from  100  to  150 
people  have  regularly  assembled  for  the  worship 
of  Almighty  God;  that  deep  religious  interest 
has  attended  many  of  these  services,  and  improve- 
ment in  life  followed  them ;  that  twenty  or  thirty 
have  been  confirmed,  and  that  the  little  flock, 
though  jeered  by  bad  men  of  the  tribe  and 
threatened  with  violence  by  the  wilder  ones,  kept 
up  daily  prayers  on  the  prairie  amidst  all  the 
hindrances  wliich  inevitably  attended  their  emi- 
gration across  a  wld  country  from  their  old  to 
their  new  home?  Slip  after  slip  cut  from  secu- 
lar newspapers  has  come  into  my  hands  in  which 
the  real  or  imaginary  shortcomings  of  mission- 
aries have  been  served  up  by  anonymous  wTiters 
with  ill-disguised  relish.  I  have  yet  to  receive 
one  which  narrates  that  a  Christian  lady,  dedi- 
cated to  the  service  of  the  Saviour,  has  given  up 
the  comforts  and  purity  of  her  own  home  to  min- 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILIZATION     181 

ister  to  the  sick  and  wretched  amid  scenes  of 
wickedness  like  that  at  Sodom;  that  she  has 
endured  a  journey  of  eight  days  and  seven  nights, 
through  a  wilderness  in  which  during  the  whole 
trip  not  a  human  habitation  was  met  with;  that 
she  has  followed  the  people  whose  salvation  she 
seeks  in  their  migration  across  the  w^ilderness, 
and  now  shares  their  tent  Hfe! 

"Let  it  be  remembered  an  unusual  dearth  of 
other  news  the  past  summer,  which  the  pestilence 
at  the  South  has  only  recently  reheved,  has  led 
the  pubUc  press  to  give  the  slightest  ripple  of 
evil  upon  the  surface  of  Indian  affairs  a  strained 
importance.  Half  the  difficulty  of  the  Indian 
question  lies  in  the  fact  that  everything  about  it 
wears  the  aspect  of  the  extraordinary  and  gran- 
diloquent. One  famihar  with  the  real  state  of 
affairs  wearies  for  the  time  when  a  squabble  over 
a  horse-race  shall  cease  to  be  chronicled  as  'an  in- 
surrection,' preparations  for  a  feast  heralded  as 
the  'eve  of  an  Indian  outbreak,'  and  a  set  of  horse- 
thieves  termed  *a  war  party.'  There  is  a  deal  of 
truth  in  the  remark  attributed  to  a  Piute  Indian : 
'When  three  or  four  bad  w^hite  men  stop  and  rob 
one  stage,  maybe  kill  somebody,  you  send  one 
sheriff  catch  three,  four  bad  men ;  same  way  when 
some  bad  white  men  steal  some  cattle,  or  some 
horses,  j^ou  send  one  sheriff;  but  when  three,  four 
bad  Injun  stop  one  stage,  kill  somebody,  steal 


182     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

some  horse  or  cow,  you  try  catch  three,  four  bad 
Injun?  No;  all  white  men  say,  "Injun  broke 
out,  Injun  on  warpath,"  and  then  come  soldier 
for  to  kill  everybody.'  '* 

The  church  building  in  process  of  erection  at 
Flandreau  when  Bishop  Hare  made  the  visita- 
tion to  which  the  unquoted  portion  of  the  fore- 
going letter  refers,  was  finished  early  in  1879. 
A  letter  from  Flandreau,  April  21,  1879,  "to  our 
Brethren  of  the  Church,"  relates  some  of  the  cir- 
cumstances attending  the  service  of  consecra- 
tion: 

"Sunday,  April  20,  was  the  day  appointed  for 
the  consecration  of  the  church.  A  roaring  gale 
prevailed,  but  the  consecration  services  were  par- 
ticipated in  by  a  large  congregation,  who  gave 
undivided  attention  until  I  had  advanced  about 
ten  minutes  in  my  sermon,  when  the  frightened 
glances  of  two  or  three  of  the  men  who  were 
sitting  near  the  windows  wliich  look  out  toward 
the  town  (about  an  eighth  of  a  mile  distant) 
turned  my  attention  in  that  direction.  I  saw  in 
an  instant  that  a  fire  was  raging  there,  an  alarm- 
ing event  always  in  this  windy  region  when  the 
country  has  been  long  without  rain. 

"The  prairie  fire  is  the  terror  of  the  farmer, 
for  it  sweeps  the  labors  of  months  out  of  exist- 
ence in  a  few  moments,  and  he  is  fortunate  if 
his  wife  and  children  escape  the  catastrophe  which 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILIZATION     183 

falls  upon  his  property.  The  story  is  in  every 
one's  mouth  just  now  of  a  husband  and  wife, 
who,  as  they  frantically  endeavored  to  save  some 
of  their  stock  from  one  of  these  prairie  fires  were, 
for  a  few  moments,  separated  from  one  another 
by  a  cloud  of  smoke,  and  when  the  smoke  lifted, 
the  husband  found  that  the  flames  had  swept  over 
his  wife  and  left  her  writhing  in  mortal  agony; 
'Every  stitch  of  clothing  burned  off,  her  body 
burned  from  the  crown  of  her  head  to  the  soles 
of  her  feet  and  her  flesh  dropping  in  shreds  from 
her  bones.* 

"The  sight  which  met  my  eye  as  I  looked  from 
the  windows  of  the  church  excited  my  alarm,  of 
course,  and  I  immediately  told  the  men  that  I 
thought  we  could  best  honor  God  by  going  at 
once  to  the  assistance  of  the  people  of  the  im- 
periled town,  dofl'ed  my  robes,  as  did  Rev.  Mr. 
Young  his  surplice,  and  ran  with  him  and  the 
rest  of  the  people  towards  the  flames.  A  spark 
from  a  cliimney  had  lighted  upon  the  dry  grass 
on  the  western  side  of  the  town,  the  flames  had 
leaped  then  to  the  hay  piled  back  of,  and  over, 
a  rude  frontier  stable  and  was  bounding  on  and 
threatening  the  whole  west  end  of  the  village. 
We  all  worked  as  for  dear  life,  some  trying  to 
whip  out  the  fire  with  old  coats,  shawls,  brooms, 
and  indeed  with  whatever  in  the  excitement  we 
could  lay  our  hands  on,  while  others  helped  to 


184     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

empty  the  houses  wliich  were  most  threatened. 
The  driving  gale  carried  the  sparks  before  it, 
and  we  whipped  away  in  one  place  only  to  find 
that  the  grass  had  been  ignited,  here  and  there, 
ten  or  twenty  feet  beyond  us  and  that  the  devour- 
ing element  was  ghding  on  from  those  points 
with  alarming  rapidity.  A  drought  of  many 
months'  duration  had  left  everything  as  dry  and 
almost  as  combustible  as  tinder  and  it  was  soon 
evident  that  everything  ahead  of  the  wind  in 
the  line  of  its  movement  was  doomed.  Notwith- 
standing all  our  efforts,  first  a  house,  then  the 
piles  of  lumber  in  a  board  yard,  and  then  another 
house  were  consumed  and  the  fire  shot  on  in  the 
direction  of  our  new  church  and  the  houses  of 
some  of  our  best  and  hardest-working  Indians. 
The  smoke  and  cinders  were  blinding  and 
smothering;  but  whites  and  Indians,  men  and 
women,  all  worked  as  best  we  could  and  at  last 
had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  fire  sweep  by 
along  a  fine  which  came  no  nearer  our  holy  and 
beautiful  house  than  fifteen  feet.  One  of  the 
Indians  whose  houses  were  in  the  track  of  the 
fire  was  not  so  fortunate.  He  and  his  people  had 
been  so  busy  helping  to  protect  the  property  of 
others,  that  they  had  not  noticed  in  time  the  peril 
of  their  own,  and  when  they  rushed  at  last  to  its 
rescue  and  carried  their  household  goods  from 
their  dwelling,  the  fire  by  a  curious  freak  con- 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILIZATION      185 

sumed  the  goods  and  left  the  house  untouched. 
Providentially  no  lives  were  lost. 

"After  our  labors  we  were  all  as  begrimed 
and  besooted  as  miners,  and,  as  we  talked  over 
our  adventures,  might  have  been  taken  for  Ethi- 
opian minstrels  canvassing  the  results  of  their 
evening's  entertainment. 

"The  case  of  the  sufferers  is  very  sad.  Several 
of  them  lost  almost  their  all,  that  all  the  result 
of  the  hard  fight  for  life  which  our  western 
pioneers  almost  always  have  to  wage  the  first 
few  years  of  their  settlement  in  their  new  home. 
One  poor  woman  had  invested  her  earnings  as 
a  school  teacher  in  a  millinery  establishment. 
Her  goods  in  the  general  alarm  were  snatched 
from  her  store  to  be  carried  to  a  safe  place  and 
were  seized  by  the  hurricane  and  whirled  into 
the  flames  or  blown  over  the  blackened  plains. 
Another  sufferer  is  a  man  with  a  wife  and  four 
children,  whose  house  just  built  and  all  its  con- 
tents were  entirely  consumed.  He  is  reduced 
almost  to  beggaiy.  One  of  our  Indian  com- 
municants lost  two  plows,  a  barrel  of  pork  and 
a  good  deal  of  wearing  apparel. 

"I  invited  the  people  of  the  town  to  meet  in 
the  evening  in  the  church,  the  only  available  place, 
to  devise  means  for  relieving  the  sufferers.  The 
meeting  was  accordingly  held  and  immediately 
followed  by  divine  service,  in  which  only  a  few 


186     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

words  were  needed  to  impress  upon  all  the 
solemnity  of  the  lesson  we  had  been  taught  by 
the  events  of  the  day  on  the  uncertainty  of 
human  possessions.  The  subscription  for  the 
relief  of  the  sufferers  has  been  quite  general  and 
I  have  promised  to  solicit  help  from  my  friends 
in  the  East.     .     .     . 

"Our  Indians  won,  by  their  hearty  and  effi- 
cient efforts  to  check  the  flames  and  save  prop- 
erty, the  admiration  of  the  most  cynical.  I  shall 
not  soon  forget  one  little  episode.  Toward  the 
close  of  the  excitement,  when  our  exhausted  ener- 
gies were  all  being  bent  to  saving  the  church, 
an  old  Indian  woman  who  saw  me  putting  a 
bucket  of  water  to  my  lips  ran  to  me  and  asked 
a  drink,  put  the  bucket  to  her  parched  lips  and 
then,  stopping  first  for  a  moment  and  putting 
her  shriveled  hand  in  mine  with  an  expression 
of  thankfulness,  rushed  back  to  continue  her  work 
of  beating  the  flaming  prairie.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  exhaustion  which  the  excited  efforts  of 
the  Indians  had  produced,  a  fair-sized  congre- 
gation assembled  in  the  church  in  the  afternoon, 
when  Rev.  Mr.  Young  presented  a  class  of  eight 
for  confirmation. 

"There  is  room  for  much  improvement  in  these 
people.  They  are  lacking  in  persistent  appli- 
cation and  plant  far  less  of  their  land  than  they 
ought;  but  they  have  in  a  commendable  degree 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILIZATION      187 

resisted  the  temptation  to  drink,  which  their  vicin- 
ity to  a  white  man's  town  presents;  they  have 
won  the  reputation  of  being  quiet  and  peaceable 
neighbors;  their  credit  is  good  at  the  stores,  and 
they  are  more  attentive  to  their  religious  duties 
than  most  white  men  are.  To  one  who  moves  as 
I  do  among  the  barbarous  brethren  of  these 
Flandreau  people  and  compares  the  quiet  farm- 
ing life  of  the  one  with  the  dancings  and  drum- 
mings,  the  indolence  and  wildness  of  the  others, 
the  condition  of  the  former  is  full  of  encourage- 
ment." 

In  the  following  montli,  May,  1879,  a  char- 
acteristic scene,  in  which  Bishop  Hare  took  part, 
was  enacted  at  the  Crow  Creek  Agency.  It  was 
described  in  Anpao  for  July,  1879,  by  Mr.  S.  J. 
Brown,  catechist  at  Crow  Creek,  under  the  head- 
ing, "A  Heroic  Step": 

"One  of  the  bravest  acts  and  one  of  the  most 
interesting  ceremonies  that  I  ever  witnessed,  took 
place  here  at  the  time  of  Bishop  Hare's  visita- 
tion in  May  last. 

"The  hero  of  what  I  am  about  to  relate  is  a 
Sioux  brave  and  named  lewicaka,  or  Truth 
Teller,  a  nephew  of  an  hereditary  chief  of  con- 
siderable note,  who  died  a  few  years  ago,  and 
whose  name  he  bears,  and  is  otherwise  closely 
connected  by  blood  with  the  'best  families'  of  the 
Sioux   nation.     He   is   considered    one    of   the 


188     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

bravest  of  his  people  and,  though  a  young  man 
of  only  about  thirty-five  years  of  age,  is  (or 
was)  his  chief's — White  Ghost's — head  soldier, 
warrior  and  chief  counselor,  a  position  given 
only  to  the  best  and  bravest  of  the  tribe.  On 
account  of  his  daring  exploits  on  the  warpath 
and  his  well-known  love  for  the  Indian  life  and 
his  open  warfare  against  the  God  of  civilization, 
he  was,  last  winter,  made  master  and  keeper  of 
the  drum  of  the  Order  of  the  Grass  Dance,  and 
thus  was  he  found  upon  the  Bishop's  arrival, 
clothed  with  all  the  honors  within  the  gift  of  his 
people. 

"Upon  the  occasion  of  the  Bishop's  visit  and 
at  one  of  his  councils  with  the  Indians  who  had 
gathered  to  hear  the  great  spirit-man  talk.  Truth 
Teller,  who  was  present,  suddenly  arose  in  the 
midst  of  the  people  and  advanced  to  the  front, 
shook  hands  with  the  Bishop,  and  then,  stepping 
back  a  few  feet  and  drawing  himself  up  to  his 
full  height,  in  a  clear,  ringing  voice,  which  at 
once  indicated  the  deep  earnestness  and  bravery 
of  the  man,  he  declared  his  purpose  to  abandon 
all  Indian  ways  and  to  adopt  those  of  the  white 
man — to  give  up  all  heathen  rites  and  ceremonies 
and  worship  only  the  God  of  civilization,  and 
then,  to  attest  his  sincerity,  took  from  his  scalp- 
lock  a  war  eagle  feather — that  ensign  of  bravery 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILIZATION     189 

and  of  many  years  of  savagery — and  handing  it 
over  to  the  Bishop,  said: 

"  'I  give  to  you  this  war  eagle  feather.  Take 
it,  and  keep  it  in  remembrance  of  the  words  of 
Ti-uth  Teller,'  and  then  with  an  eloquent  impres- 
siveness  that  touched  my  heart  as  it  never  was 
touched  before,  he  presented  the  Bishop  with  the 
drum  of  the  Order  of  the  Grass  Dance,  and  con- 
tinued, 'I  part  with  the  feather  and  the  drum 
and  all  Indian  ways  forever,  and  with  them  give 
to  you  my  body  and  my  soul.' 

"The  next  important  step  in  this  interesting 
man's  career  was  taken  Sunday,  June  29,  while 
he  was  present  at  a  Missionary  Conference 
assembled  by  the  Bishop  at  the  Yankton  Agency, 
when  he  was,  in  an  impressive  ceremony,  admit- 
ted a  catechumen.  The  Bishop  met  Truth  Teller 
and  his  witness  at  the  door  of  the  church  and 
addressed  to  the  former  the  following  questions, 
to  which  he  answered  affirmatively: 

"  'Dost  thou  believe  that  the  God  whom  we 
preach  is  the  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth  and  that 
there  is  no  God  besides  him?'    Ans.  '1  do.' 

"  'Dost  thou  desire  to  leave  the  ways  of  dark- 
ness and  walk  in  the  light?'     Ans.  'I  do.' 

"  'Wilt  thou  patiently  seek  instruction  in  the 
ways  of  God?'     Ans.  'I  will.' 

"Then    followed   a   collect,   after   which   the 


190     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

Bishop,  taking  him  by  the  right  hand,  addressed 
him  in  these  words: 

"  'The  Lord  vouchsafe  to  receive  you  into  His 
holy  household  and  to  keep  and  govern  you 
always  in  the  same,  that  you  may  have  everlast- 
ing life ;  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.    Amen.' 

"The  newly-admitted  catechumen  was  then  led 
into  the  church  and  seated  among  the  congrega- 
tion. 

"Truth  Teller  is  no  longer  the  soldier,  the  war- 
rior, or  the  chief  counselor  that  he  was,  no  longer 
honored  or  even  respected.  He  is  most  pitiably 
degraded  in  the  eyes  of  his  people,  most  heartily 
despised  by  the  Order  of  the  Grass  Dance.  He 
has  subjected  himself  to  the  merciless  persecu- 
tions of  that  powerful  Order,  but  as  he  has 
dropped  a  seed  that  cannot  fail  to  bring  forth 
good  fruit,  it  now  remains  for  the  Government 
to  specially  care  for,  protect,  and  encourage  the 
man  in  his  laudable  efforts  to  break  up  that  evil 
genius  inimical  to  civilization — the  Grass  Dance 
Lodge."     .     .     . 

A  thrilling  sequel  to  this  act  of  Truth  Teller 
has  been  recently  related,  as  follows : 

"Truth  Teller's  act  angered  the  young  Indians 
of  his  camp.  Armed  and  with  painted  faces  they 
rushed  into  the  Bishop's  presence,  crying,  'We 
want  that  drum !'  One  of  them,  coming  close  to 
the  Bishop,  said  to  him  in  a  low  voice,  'I  am  your 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILIZATION      191 

friend,'  then,  loudly,  'We  want  that  drum!' 
Calmly  facing  them,  the  Bishop  said,  'My 
friends,  Truth  Teller  gave  that  drum  to  me.  He 
said  it  was  his  and  he  had  a  right  to  dispose  of 
it  as  he  wished.  I  cannot  give  away  what  my 
friend  has  given  to  me.'  But  they  insisted  that 
the  drum  belonged  to  the  company,  not  to  the 
one  man.  'The  Agent  shall  decide  tliis  question,' 
the  Bishop  finally  told  them.  'If  he  says  the 
drum  is  yours,  of  course  you  shall  have  it.'  Un- 
der the  circumstances  the  Agent  found  the  wisest 
verdict  was  to  award  the  drum  to  the  young 
men." 

In  Anpao  for  August,  1879,  is  found  a  letter 
on  "The  Cheyenne  River  Agency  Mission,"  well 
worth  preserving  for  its  estimate  of  Indian  char- 
acter as  seen  under  the  conditions  best  suited  to 
its  display: 

"Accompanied  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Swift,  I  lately 
paid  a  visit,  full  of  interest,  to  some  Minnecon- 
jous,  Sans  Arcs,  Blackfeet  and  other  bands  of 
Sioux  who  are  connected  with  the  Cheyenne 
River  Agency.  We  found  the  cliief.  Four 
Bears,  and  the  other  Indians,  who  had  heard  that 
we  were  coming,  on  tip-toe  with  expectation. 
Their  signal  fires  were  visible  by  night  long  be- 
fore we  reached  their  camp,  and  when  we  arrived 
we  found  them  more  than  ready  to  escort  us  over 
their  country,  display  its  merits  and  make  it  clear 


192     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

how  much  there  was  to  give  promise  of  success, 
if  we  would  only  plant  among  them  the  Indus- 
trial JNIission  which  they  so  much  desired. 

"It  is  when  you  bury  yourself  with  him  in 
his  own  wild  country  that  the  Indian  appears  at 
liis  best.  He  is  faithful  and  versatile  in  emer- 
gencies, considerate  and  tractable  in  his  inter- 
course with  you,  and,  about  the  camp-fire,  easy, 
communicative  and  confiding.  We  scoured  the 
country  up  hill  and  down  dale  all  day  long,  and 
decided,  to  the  joy  of  our  Indian  friends,  that 
it  abounded  in  the  three  sine  qua  non  to  a  suc- 
cessful settlement,  laz.,  timber,  good  water  and 
arable  land.  At  night  we  returned  to  the  camp, 
where  I  promised  myself  the  comfort  of  sleep- 
ing in  a  new  tent  which  the  cliief 's  wife  had  but 
lately  set  up.  I  found,  however,  that  in  our 
absence  the  good  woman  had  swept  and  garnished 
her  log  cabin  for  us  and  that  I  should  give  mortal 
offense  unless  I  accepted  the  attention.  And  so, 
after  two  or  three  hours  of  talk  with  a  houseful 
of  Indians,  amidst  clouds  of  smoke  from  tobacco 
pipes,  and  of  fumes,  not  so  pleasant  though  quite 
as  odoriferous,  from  heated  bodies,  Mr.  Swift 
and  I  lay  down  upon  a  couch  which  our  hostess 
had  prepared  for  us,  which,  whatever  its  short- 
comings, gratitude  and  sentiment  metamorphosed 
into  a  cleanly  and  inviting  bed,  while  Four  Bears, 
the  chief,  and  his  wife  committed  themselves  to 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILIZATION     193 

sleep  upon  an  even  less  comfortable  couch,  and 
their  son,  a  young  man  of  eighteen,  stretched 
himself  on  the  earth  floor  between  us.  This 
young  man  has  taught  himself  to  read  and  write 
his  own  tongue  and  showed  with  modest  pride  his 
Bible  and  Prayer  Book  and  read  in  the  former 
for  me. 

"The  next  day,  Friday,  we  traveled  some  forty- 
five  miles  in  a  wagon  without  springs  over  a 
rough  road  and  were  almost  jolted  to  pieces;  but 
about  five  o'clock  we  reached  St.  Paul's  Mission 
Station  at  Mackenzie's  Point  and  found,  in  the 
joy  of  the  people  who  crowded  the  chapel  on 
our  arrival  and  in  the  many  signs  of  progress 
which  met  our  eyes,  ample  reward  for  the  fatigue 
of  the  day.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Swift  resided  in  this 
camp  for  a  year  and  the  condition  of  the  people 
tells  of  the  useful  lessons  for  guidance  in  daily 
life  which  they  then  learned,  which  their  faithful 
Indian  Catechist,  whose  good  wife  keeps  the 
Mission  House  as  clean  as  any  white  woman 
could,  successfully  labors  to  keep  fresh  in  their 
minds. 

"I  confirmed  here  on  Saturday  morning  a  class 
of  ten. 

"At  noon  we  started  in  an  open  wagon  for 
the  central  mission,  the  residence  of  the  mission- 
ary, distant  twenty-two  miles.  We  had  been  on 
our  way  but  an  hour  when  a  tremendous  storm 


194     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

of  wind,  rain  and  hail  came  down  upon  us. 
Shelter  there  was  none  within  many  miles  and 
we  pressed  on  toward  the  crossing  of  the 
Cheyenne  River.  Here  we  found  a  rude  skiif 
half  full  of  water  and  we  all  fell  to  work  to 
turn  it  over  and  empty  it,  animated  by  the  hur- 
ried exclamations  of  our  Indian  guides,  who 
feared  that  the  river,  already  considerably 
swollen,  would  become  impassable  before  we 
could  cross  it.  Indians  sliine  in  such  emergen- 
cies, if  disposed  to  please  you.  They  will  plunge, 
on  horseback,  into  streams  running  like  a  mill- 
race,  or  doff  their  clothes  as  readily  as  a  white 
man  would  his  hat,  and  swim  the  flood,  carrying 
your  valuables  upon  their  heads.  We  hurried 
on  and  were  congratulating  ourselves  that  the 
storm  was  over  and  there  was  now  no  barrier 
between  us  and  our  destination,  when,  on  reach- 
ing the  brow  of  a  hill,  we  discovered  to  our  dis- 
may that  the  rivulet  which  ran  in  the  valley  be- 
neath us  was  swollen  to  a  river,  surging  along 
at  the  rate  of  from  eight  to  ten  miles  an  hour. 
There  was  nothing  to  do  but  to  sit  down  and 
wait  for  the  stream  to  run  by.  We  watched  the 
flood  disconsolately  till  sunset,  then  tiU  dark,  and 
at  length  reluctantly  made  up  our  minds  that  we 
should  have  to  spend  the  night  there.  We  were 
all  hungry  as  well  as  wet.  A  messenger  man- 
aged to  swim  the  stream  and  made  his  way  to 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILIZATION      195 

the  mission,  six  miles  off,  where,  as  we  after- 
wards learned,  he  represented  that  we  were 
starving".  By  nine  o'clock  our  ears  were  greeted 
by  the  sound  of  his  horse's  feet  and,  presently, 
his  precious  burden  of  food  was  borne  across  the 
stream  on  his  head  and  laid  in  safety  at  our  feet. 
It  was  eagerly  devoured  and  we  were  then  fain 
to  roll  ourselves  up  in  our  blankets  upon  IMother 
Earth  and  invite  the  descent  of  'tired  nature's 
sweet  restorer,'  which  in  our  case  proved  rather 
dewy  than  'balmy  sleep.' 

"With  the  early  dawn  we  rose,  found,  to  our 
relief,  that  our  stream  had  been  more  considerate 
than  that  which  the  poet  wrote  of,  and  had  indeed 
run  by.  It  was  not  long  before  we  reached  St. 
John's  IMission  and  Boarding  School,  the  resi- 
dence of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Swift.  I  thought  myself 
at  first  too  worn  out  and  stiff  for  any  duty,  but 
the  sight  of  the  fourteen  neat,  happy-looking 
Indian  girls  who  constitute  the  school,  the  evi- 
dences which  I  saw  of  their  docility  and  of  their 
dexterity  at  the  wash-tub  and  the  kneading- 
trough,  the  sweetness  of  their  responsive  singing 
at  family  prayers  and  then  the  gathering  of  the 
Christian  Indians  and  their  cordial  handshaking 
and  hearty  'Hows'  were  inspiriting,  and  I  found 
by  ten  o'clock  at  night  that,  notwithstanding  my 
fatigue,  I  had  participated  with  Mr.  Swift  in 
three  services,  two  for  Indians  and  one  at  Fort 


196     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

Bennett  for  white  people,  and  confirmed  a  class 
of  thirteen.  At  another  station,  twenty  miles 
off,  I  confirmed,  a  few  days  later,  a  class  of  eight. 

"It  does  not  do  to  sci*utinize  human  nature  too 
closely,  whether  out  here  or  in  New  York,  unless 
at  the  same  time  that  you  sciiitinize  that  of  other 
people,  you  examine  your  own,  and  there  is  much 
that  could  be  said  of  these  Indians  (and  many 
like  nothing  better  than  to  say  it)  which  it  would 
not  be  encouraging  to  detail;  but  they  are  the 
victims  of  so  many  disadvantages,  their  desire 
to  extricate  themselves  from  their  sad  phght 
seems  in  many  cases  so  honest,  and  so  great  a 
change  for  the  better  has  taken  place  among 
them  within  the  last  few  years,  that  their  case 
appeals  to  my  deepest  feelings  and  it  is  not  easy 
for  me  to  realize  that  they  can  be  the  defiant  and 
supercilious  people  whom  I  first  met  six  years 
ago.  Mr.  Swift's  seven  years  of  labors  and 
exhortations  in  season  and  out  of  season  are 
bearing  fruit  and  the  eminently  wise  administra- 
tion of  the  present  Agent,  Captain  Schwan  of  the 
Arm}^  is  bringing  order  out  of  chaos,  so  that 
they  have  become  reasonably  obedient  and  the 
best  of  them  are  clamorous  almost  to  break  away 
from  the  lazy  village  life  in  which  they  have 
hitherto  huddled  and  to  adopt  the  separate  farm 
life  which  the  Agent  desires  for  them.     .     .     . 

"Opposition    to    a    shameful    proposition    to 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILIZATION      197 

despoil  a  tribe  of  Christian  Indians  of  their  farms 
has  brought  upon  my  head  out  here  a  storm  of 
newspaper  interpretations,  and  if  I  may  beheve 
some  of  the  public  prints,  I  am  a  pretty  thor- 
oughly demoralized  fellow.  There  is  no  material 
offset  to  such  calumnies  which  I  should  enjoy 
more  than  generous  help  in  planting  among  these 
Cheyenne  River  Indians  the  church  and  mission 
dwelling  which  are  so  essential  to  their  welfare 
and  which  they  so  much  desire,  and  I  conclude 
with  the  appeal  of  No  Heart's,  'Let  all  our 
friends  hear  these  words.  We  long  for  life. 
Help  us  more  and  more.'  " 

The  transition  from  camp  and  travel  to  the 
Hfe  of  the  boarding-schools  was  one  which  Bishop 
Hare  was  constantly  making,  and  the  following 
letter,  with  its  glimpse  of  him  surrounded  by 
Indian  children,  cannot  be  spared: 

"Hope  School,  Springfield,  Dak., 
"May  17,  1881. 
""To  Our  Benefactors  Who  Support  Scholars  in 
the  Boarding  Schools  of  Niobrara. 
"My   Dear    Friends:     Some    of   you   have 
heard,  perhaps,  of  the  five  weeks  which  I  spent 
first  snow-bound  and  then  flood-bound,  vainly 
trying  to  get  back  to  Niobrara,  all  the  time  just 
on  the  border  of  the  Indian  country,  but  never 


198     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

within  it.  It  was  annoying  enough,  but  it  seems 
so  trifling  as  compared  with  the  trials  of  those 
who  were  shut  up  in  the  Indian  countiy  all  the 
winter  through  that  I  have  not  a  word  to  say 
about  it. 

"Such  a  winter  was  never  known:  six  full 
months  of  unintermitted  rigor,  communication 
was  cut  off  five  or  six  weeks  at  a  time,  and  at 
some  points,  supplies  were  reduced  so  low  that 
people  were  well  off  who  managed  to  keep  on 
hand  the  barest  necessaries  of  life,  such  as  coffee, 
pork  and  beans. 

"The  season  leaped,  however,  at  last  from  win- 
ter to  surmner  in  a  week,  and  the  members  of  the 
JMission  are  all  recovering  from  the  exhaustion 
from  which  they  looked  as  if  they  had  suffered, 
though  they  did  not  complain.  The  schools  will 
soon  rally  from  the  evil  effects  of  their  special 
trials,  which  are  chiefly  apparent  in  the  condition 
of  some  of  the  buildings  and  of  the  clothing  of 
some  of  the  cliildren.  In  this  latter  the  schools 
have  been  ver}^  short,  as  boxes  expected  in 
November  and  December  have  not  yet  come 
through. 

"My  time  thus  far  since  my  return  has  been 
occupied  chiefly  with  the  schools.  The  improve- 
ment of  the  children  has  been  most  marked.  I 
have  heard  them  recite  the  multiplication  table, 
answer   questions   in   geography,   and   perform 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILIZATION      199 

aritlimetical  exercises  with  a  readiness  which  is 
not  excelled  in  ordinary  wliite  schools. 

"Their  essays  in  speaking  English  have  been 
very  creditable,  indeed.  Imagine  them  pretty 
much  the  same  as  white  children  and  you  ^vill 
have  the  ti-uest  conception  of  them.  I  went  up 
to  a  Httle  girl  of  ten  years  the  other  day,  and 
putting  my  hand  under  her  chin,  enquired :  'And 
why  didn't  you  sing  at  prayers  this  morning?' 
The  answer,  somewhat  timidly  and  plaintively 
given,  was :  'I  did  not  want  to.'  'And  why  didn't 
3^ou  want  to?'  was  my  reply.  What  did  she 
respond,  tliink  you?  '  'Cause,'  the  answer  of 
children  all  the  world  over,  methinks. 

"Yesterday,  I  proposed  to  the  children  of  Hope 
School  that  I  should  give  them  a  drive  in  my 
traveling  wagon.  They  were  more  than  ready, 
and  in  the  afternoon  we  started,  eleven  little  peo- 
ple crowded  with  me  into  a  two-seated  wagon, 
so  that  I  was  quite  surrounded,  'Children  to  right 
of  me,  children  to  left  of  me,  children  in  front 
of  me,' — shall  I  complete  the  line  and  say,  'vol- 
leyed and  thundered'?  No,  not  that;  but  I  was 
charmed  with  the  confiding  way  in  which  they 
soon  came  to  be  quite  at  home  with  me,  first  chat- 
ting with  each  other  about  the  scenes  through 
which  we  passed,  and  then  at  my  request  singing 
me  some  of  their  songs  and  hymns.  Presently 
we  stopped  at  a  farmhouse  where  I  had  some 


200     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

business.  The  good  people  looked  at  my  load  a 
little  askance,  moved,  I  think,  somewhat  by  the 
old  dread  that  the  whites  have  for  the  Indians 
and  somewhat  by  the  feeling:  'How  absurd  to 
try  to  do  anything  with  a  lot  of  Indian  children !' 
I  thought  I  would  undeceive  them,  and  there- 
fore, after  the  children  had  played  a  few  minutes 
in  the  grove  back  of  the  house,  proposed  to  the 
family  that  the  children  should  go  into  the  sit- 
ting-room. 'Perhaps,'  said  I,  'you  would  like 
to  hear  them  sing.'  'Why,  yes,'  was  the  quick 
but  somewhat  unbeKeving  reply.  In  we  all  went, 
and  to  the  amazement  of  the  audience,  the  chil- 
dren stood  and  sang,  first: 

"  'Jesus,  meek  and  gentle,'     ... 

and  then  one  of  their  songs: 

"  'In  a  meadow  green  I  saw  a  lamb,'     .     .     . 

"I  never  before  acted  so  much  in  the  capacity 
of  a  traveling  theatrical  manager,  and  know  now 
what  are  the  sensations  of  such  a  personage  when 
he  is  not  ashamed  of  his  troupe." 

The  humor  of  a  situation  was  seldom  lost  on 
Bishop  Hare,  even  when  he  looked  beyond  and 
behind  some  strange  scene  into  its  true  signifi- 
cance.    Thus,  too,  he  put  a  just  value  upon  the 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILIZATION     201 

uses  of  a  dignified  symbolism  in  the  roughest 
surroundings.     Witness  the  ensuing  letter: 

"Red  Dog's  Camp,  Oct.  27.  [1882.] 
"We  reached  Medicine  Root  Station,  where 
Miss  Leigh  bravely  represents  the  work  of  Christ, 
Wednesday,  October  25.  She  was  overjoyed  to 
see  us,  for  it  is  not  once  in  a  month  that  she  sees 
a  white  person,  and  bustled  around  to  make  us 
comfortable  in  a  way  wliich  made  us  feel  that 
we  were  the  mosrt  important  persons  in  the  world. 
We  had  a  service  in  the  evening,  at  which  three 
young  men  and  one  young  woman  were  baptized ; 
were  up  bright  and  early  the  next  morning  and 
celebrated  the  Holy  Communion  before  break- 
fast ;  after  breakfast  had  another  service  at  which 
I  confirmed  four  and  were  oif  for  the  next  sta- 
tion, fifteen  miles  distant,  in  time  for  a  service 
there,  and  then  for  a  drive  of  eight  miles  and 
a  service  at  night  at  St.  Andrew's  Station,  where 
Rev.  Amos  Ross,  a  native  Deacon,  is  settled. 
The  baptism  of  the  three  young  men  and  one 
young  woman  at  Medicine  Root  Station  pre- 
sented features  of  peculiar  interest.  The  Indians 
are  foolish  and  superstitious  beyond  description, 
and  the  work  of  the  Church  gives  rise  to  sur- 
mises and  notions  of  all  possible  sorts.  A  com- 
mon feeling  is  one  of  dread.  They  watch  the 
career  of  those  who  identify  themselves  with  the 


20£     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

Church,  and,  should  sickness  or  death  come  upon 
them,  lay  the  calamity  at  the  door  of  the  Church 
and  argue  that  'the  new  way'  is  good  for  white 
men,  but  was  not  meant  for  Indians.  When 
any  one  advocates  the  Church  and  says  it  is  'a  good 
thing,'  they  dare  him  to  be  himself  baptized  and 
see  what  the  result  will  be!  The  three  young 
men  of  whom  I  write  came  forward  with  a  man- 
ner which  indicated  what  an  appalling  step  they 
were  looked  upon  as  taking  and  as  if  bracing 
themselves  for  the  ordeal.  They  stood  close 
together,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  one  buttressing 
another,  as  it  were,  and  swayed  and  bowed  as 
they  relieved  their  tense  muscles  by  change  of 
posture.  One  was  in  white  man's  dress,  another 
in  full  Indian  costume,  the  third  had  been  able 
to  procure  only  pants  and  vest  and  stood  in  his 
shirt  sleeves;  but  one  did  not  think  of  the  ludi- 
crousness  of  the  aj^parel  in  the  solemnity  of  the 
service. 

"At  each  of  these  stations  the  people  gather 
together  for  worship  in  the  Governmental  Day 
Schools,  which  are  transformed  from  schools  into 
chapels  by  the  movable  prayer  desks  and  altar 
and  beautiful  hangings  which  were  provided  for 
them  by  the  members  of  the  Niobrara  League. 
I  am  sitting  now  in  the  schoolliouse  in  Red  Dog's 
Camp  facing  this  movable  chancel  furniture, 
and  its  effect  is  so  salutary  that  I  am  moved  to 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILIZATION     203 

say  (forgive  my  boldness)  how  much  I  wish  that 
the  same  donors  or  other  persons  hke-minded 
would  send  some  hangings  like  them  for  a  new 
station,  called  St.  Luke's,  among  Spotted  Tail's 
people,  and  for  the  chapel  at  which  the  girls  of 
St.  John's  Boarding  School  worship,  and  for  St. 
Paul's,  Mackenzie's  Point.  Besides  other  good 
influence  exerted  by  this  adornment  of  the  places 
we  use  for  worship,  it  shows  that  we  think  wor- 
ship of  enough  importance  to  be  carefully  pre- 
pared for.  I  thank  God  that,  though  we  live  in 
the  wilds  and  are  driven  to  aU  sorts  of  makeshifts 
in  Niobrara,  our  public  worship  is  never  careless 
or  slovenly." 

In  November  of  1884  Bishop  Hare  paid  a  visit 
to  the  Standing  Rock  Reservation,  on  the  north- 
ern line  of  the  present  state  of  Dakota,  and  took 
the  first  steps  towards  the  establishment  of  a 
mission  there  in  the  following  year.  His  own 
account  of  the  experience  shows  with  what  ele- 
mental conditions  he  had  to  deal  even  so  late 
as  1884: 

"Early  Monday  we  started  out  upon  our  trip 
up  the  river.  Our  party  consisted  of  five  selected 
Indians,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Swift  and  myself.  Our 
destination  was  the  Standing  Rock  Agency, 
where  there  is  a  large  body  of  Indians  as  yet 
unreached  by  educational  and  missionary  effort. 


204     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

some  of  whom  have  again  and  again  sent  us 
requests  that  we  would  come  and  do  for  them 
the  work  which  we  had  done  for  other  Indians. 

"Mr.  Swift's  Christian  Indians  have  taken  up 
their  plea  and  pressed  it  upon  us  with  great 
earnestness,  No  Heart,  a  Christian  chief,  and 
others  volunteering  to  accompanj^  us  and  smooth 
our  way.  A  good  deal  of  smoothing  is  some- 
times necessary,  for  Indian  life  is  a  tangle  of 
intrigue  and  diverse  parties  and  clashing  plans 
and  interests  through  which  the  benevolent,  how- 
ever clever,  may  find  it  hard  to  make  his  way. 

"We  reached  the  Agency  in  two  days  without 
mishap.  Fort  Yates  is  close  by,  and  Mr.  Swift 
and  I  were  most  hospitably  entertained  by  the 
chaplain,  one  of  our  own  clergy,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Dunbar. 

"We  busied  ourselves  for  two  days,  while  our 
Indian  colleagues  moved  among  the  Indians  and 
quietly  arranged  for  an  interview. 

"The  Government  Boarding  School  work  on 
this  Reserve  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Roman  Cath- 
olics. That  in  charge  of  the  Sisters  is  carried 
on  with  great  self-denial,  and  we  saw  much  that 
excited  our  warmest  admiration.  Of  the  evan- 
gelistic and  pastoral  work  which  has  marked  our 
Mission,  we  saw,  however,  little,  and  it  is  the 
lack  of  it  which  has  led  the  people  to  invoke  our 
aid.     The  agent,  JMajor  McLaughlin,  is  one  of 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILIZATION     205 

the  best  in  the  service,  active,  business-hke,  large- 
minded,  and  deeply  interested  in  the  Indians  and 
in  his  work. 

"At  the  appointed  time  we  met  a  large  council 
of  the  Indians  composed  of  men  of  all  kinds, 
and  all  kinds  of  speeches  were  delivered;  one 
chief  saying  that  'he  blamed  our  grandfathers 
and  his  grandfathers.  He  blamed  ours  because 
they  killed  the  Son  of  God,  and  he  blamed  his 
because  they  had  not  taught  their  children  better 
ways'!  Some  intimated  that  they  would  be  more 
favorably  disposed  to  listen  to  us  were  the  In- 
dians who  had  listened  to  us  better  off! 

"Some  said  they  were  glad  to  see  us  if  we 
had  come  to  bring  them  more  beef  and  sugar 
and  coffee!  After  this  fusillade  of  speeches 
made  for  effect,  the  representatives  of  the  Indians 
who  had  again  and  again  invoked  our  help  rose 
and  sententiously  remarked  that  their  minds  were 
not  changed,  that  they  wanted  our  JNIission,  that 
they  had  said  this  several  times  before,  and  now 
said  it  again. 

"The  mental  and  spiritual  destitution  of  these 
poor  people  is  appalling.  Their  call  to  us  to 
come  to  their  deliverance  is  distinct  and  emphatic. 
The  work  which  the  Church  has  done  for  their 
neighbors  has  provoked  it.  Somehow  or  other 
we  must  respond  to  it. 

"Mr.  Swift  and  I,  under  the  guidance  of  the 


206     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

agent  (who  in  this  and  in  every  way  showed  us 
every  courtesy),  traversed  the  Reserve  exten- 
sively that  we  might  intelligently  choose  a  loca- 
tion for  our  future  enterprise,  and  at  last  fixed 
upon  Oak  Creek,  where  there  are  stretches  of 
good  arable  land,  with  wood  and  water  close  at 
hand. 

"A  mission  begun  here  would  soon  gather 
about  it  a  body  of  well-disposed  Indians,  and, 
by  God's  blessing,  ]\Ir.  Swift's  work  among 
the  Cheyenne  River  Indians  would  be  repro- 
duced.    .     .     . 

"In  starting  on  our  return  trip  we  got  sepa- 
rated from  some  of  our  party,  and  at  night  took 
refuge  in  a  camp  of  Indian  herders  and  were 
forced  to  remain  there  nearly  two  days.  A  whole 
beef  quartered  and  hung  up  just  before  the  log 
house  in  which  we  slept,  on  a  pole  stretched  be- 
tween two  trees,  from  which,  when  meal  time 
drew  near,  large  steaks  were  cut,  assured  us  that, 
primitive  as  our  quarters  and  our  surroundings 
were,  we  should  not  lack  food,  while  the  free 
hospitality  of  the  herders  made  us  feel  quite  at 
home.  About  twenty  miles  from  here  the  Con- 
gregationalists  have  established  a  Mission  Sta- 
tion under  a  native  teacher  who  is  highly 
esteemed.  We  had  hoped  to  visit  it,  but  found 
he  was  absent  and  that  a  visit  would  add  consid- 
erably to  our  journey.     Surrendering  this  plan. 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILIZATION     207 

therefore,  from  this  point  we  struck  out  into  the 
back  country,  leaving  roads  and  hoping  that,  as 
the  weather  was  growing  bitterly  cold,  we  could 
make  a  short  cut  to  White  Wolf's  Camp  and 
cheer  the  little  flock  there. 

"Our  friend  No  Heart  disapproved  the  ven- 
ture, but  was  over-persuaded  and  traveled  with 
us  till  noon ;  but  then  announced  laughingly  that 
he  could  not  afford  to  over-drive  and  kill  his 
horses  if  we  could  aiFord  to  kill  ours,  and  that 
he  was  sure  we  should  be  overtaken  by  the  night 
and  lose  our  way.  He  w^ould  camp  near  where 
he  was. 

"Two  others  of  our  Indian  companions  were 
more  hopeful. 

"The  herder  who  had  guided  us  and  was  about 
to  return  to  the  camp,  thought  we  could  reach 
our  destination  in  four  or  five  hours,  and  Mr. 
Swift  and  I,  with  two  Indians,  determined  to 
cut  loose  from  our  baggage-wagon — our  base 
of  supplies — and  make  for  White  Wolf's  Camp. 

"We  followed  a  cattle  trail  hour  after  hour, 
each  hour  revealing  no  sign  that  we  were  nearer 
our  destination  than  when  we  started. 

*'The  trail,  too,  divided  into  many  smaller 
trails  and,  as  they  say,  'petered  out.'  Night 
came  on.  We  pushed  on  and  on  until  far  in  the 
night.  Our  perplexity  was  complete  and,  call- 
ing a  'council  of  war,'  we  determined  that  we  were 


208     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

helplessly  lost,  and  that  our  only  recourse  was 
to  creep  into  the  bushes  near  by  and  there  pass 
the  night.  Our  tent  and  most  of  our  bedding 
and  food,  alas,  were  in  the  baggage-wagon. 

"We  had  taken  the  precaution,  however,  to 
bring  some  of  our  blankets  and  some  food  with 
us.  I  was  better  provided  than  the  others. 
There  was  dry  wood  near  by  from  which  we  made 
a  huge  fire.  The  night  was  intensely  cold, 
freezing  even  the  pickles  in  our  lunch  basket. 
Our  quarters  were  not  palatial,  but  they  might 
have  been  worse. 

"The  morning  hght  revealed  not  a  sign  which 
was  the  least  clew  to  any  of  us  where  we  were. 
We  traveled  on,  however,  and  after  several  hours, 
descried  a  figure  on  a  hill-top  some  distance  off. 
One  of  the  Indians  made  for  him.  He  turned 
out  to  be  the  native  catechist  from  White  Wolf's 
Camp,  who  was  out  seeking  lost  horses.  He 
guided  us  to  camp,  where  a  sight  met  our  gaze 
which  was  a  full  reward  for  all  our  night's  dis- 
comfort— in  a  vast  wilderness  a  new  essay  at  a 
farming  settlement,  and  at  a  central  point  a 
dozen  Indians  busy  erecting  a  log  chapel !  I  had 
sent  them  money  with  which  to  buy  flooring, 
doors  and  M^ndow  sash.  They  had  themselves 
cut  and  hauled  and  hewn  the  logs,  had  put  them 
in  place  and  were  doing  all  the  work.  The  sight 
provoked  the  exclamation,  'In  the  wilderness  shall 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILIZATION      209 

waters  break  out  and  streams  in  the  desert.'  The 
people's  joy  that  I  had  come  to  see  them,  and  my 
joy  at  seeing  them,  were  alike  unbounded." 

A  recent  letter  from  ^Major  INIcLaughlin,  now 
Indian  Inspector,  and  author  of  the  illuminating 
book,  My  Friend  the  Indian,  brings  a  valuable 
corroboration  of  Bishop  Hare's  account  of  his 
visit  to  Standing  Rock  Agency,  and  of  the  first 
steps  towards  the  establisliment  of  St.  EHzabeth's 
jMission  there.  The  letter  mentions  one  point 
which  Bishop  Hare's  narrative  does  not  touch 
upon,  namely,  that  he  made  it  very  clear  to  the 
Indians  with  whom  he  conferred,  "that  he  did 
not  Avish  to  erect  his  mission  buildings  in  a  dis- 
trict of  the  reservation  within  which  a  mission 
of  any  other  denomination  was  then  being  con- 
ducted," and  ends  with  a  paragraph  which  must 
be  quoted  entire: 

"I  met  the  Bishop  very  frequently  during  my 
fourteen  years  as  Agent,  at  Standing  Rock 
Agency,  and  esteemed  him  very  highly.  He  was 
of  sterling  character,  an  earnest  Christian  gen- 
tleman, and  broad-minded  enough  to  recognize 
the  good  in  every  conscientious  worker,  regard- 
less of  what  his  religious  affiliations  might  be." 

Through  all  the  wanderings  and  vicissitudes  to 
which  the  preceding  pages  have  referred,  the 


210     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

daily,  the  domestic  concerns  of  those  to  whom 
he  was  most  closely  bound  in  the  East,  were 
constantly  in  his  thoughts.  The  welfare  of  his 
son,  the  family  birthdays,  the  health  and  affairs 
of  all  his  circle,  from  parents  to  nephews  and 
nieces,  were  frequently  recurring  topics  in  his 
intimate  letters.  These  do  not  reveal  him  as  one 
of  those  who  rejoice  in  "roughing  it"  for  its  own 
sake.  He  is  seen  rather  as  taking  liis  experi- 
ences as  they  came,  and  taking  them  without 
complaint,  his  tastes  and  instincts  all  the  while 
pleading  within  him  for  the  mode  of  life  to  which 
he  was  born,  amongst  the  kinsfolk  and  friends 
whom  he  held — as  they  held  him — in  warm  per- 
sonal affection. 

Not  long  after  his  mother's  death  in  1883  he 
wrote  to  his  sister  Mary;  "Mother's  photo- 
graph, stuck  into  the  frame  of  one  of  Mary's 
[his  wife's],  is  before  me  as  I  write.  How 
much  those  two  women  have  done  for  me,  and 
are  still  doing  for  me  I"  Corresponding  with  the 
element  of  tenderness  in  his  feeling  towards  sis- 
ter, mother  and  wife,  was  an  element  of  cliivalry 
towards  all  women.  Corresponding  also  wdth 
the  personal  debt  to  the  few  women  with  whom 
he  was  most  intimately  alHed,  was  the  debt  of  all 
his  mission  work  to  the  women  of  the  Church.  In 
the  first  of  all  his  addresses  to  Indians,  at  Oneida, 
Wisconsin,  he  reported  himself  as  saying,  "I  told 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILIZATION      211 

the  Indians  of  the  meetings  I  had  attended  of 
ladies  in  Boston,  Providence,  New  York,  Phila- 
delphia, and  Baltimore,  and  told  them  that  I 
represented  those  ladies,  and  that  they  must  see 
in  my  face  the  face  of  a  thousand  friends." 
These  friends  continued  to  multiply  through  such 
organizations  as  the  Indians'  Hope  of  Phila- 
delphia, the  Dakota  League  of  Massachusetts, 
the  Niobrara  League  of  New  York,  a  society 
devoted  primarily  to  the  work  of  Bishop  Hare, 
and,  finally,  through  many  branches  of  the 
Woman's  Auxiliary,  to  which  the  special  organi- 
zations generally  allied  themselves.  Owing 
much  to  the  women  of  the  East,  he  gave  then 
of  his  best  to  the  women  of  his  Mission.  Indeed, 
there  was  no  portion  of  liis  service  in  which  the 
inlierent  nature  of  the  man  expressed  itself  more 
fully. 

As  the  women  of  the  Mission  had  to  do  espe- 
cially with  the  children  of  the  schools,  it  was 
often  a  joint  benefit  which  he  rendered  to  these 
two  classes  dependent  upon  his  care.  In  the 
earliest  days  he  is  found  taking  an  arduous  jour- 
ney, on  the  false  rumor  of  an  Indian  uprising, 
to  a  distant  post  where  two  women  were  working 
unprotected.  If  there  was  danger,  it  was  for 
him  to  share,  and  to  guard  those  whom  he  had 
exposed  to  it.  In  the  schools  there  was  all  man- 
ner of  detail  to  be  ordered  properly,  and,  in  the 


212      LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

interest  of  women  and  children,  he  applied  him- 
self to  it.  When  the  Hope  School  at  Spring- 
field was  about  to  begin  its  work,  he  wrote  to 
his  sister  Mary,  November  23,  1879:  "I  am  still 
at  Springfield  wading  through  the  preparatory 
stages  of  housekeeping,  viz. :  carpentering,  paint- 
ing, white-washing,  house-cleaning;  but  nearer 
the  finale,  I  am  glad  to  say,  than  when  I  last 
wrote.  I  have  been  reading  up  on  the  subject  of 
housekeeping  in  a  little  book.  From  Attic  to 
Cellar,  which  I  recommend  to  other  young 
housekeepers,  for  instance  Mother.  It  is  sur- 
prising how  much  I  know,  and  with  what  self- 
possession  I  give  orders  to  a  very  bustling  and 
self-confident  cook  I  have  the  privilege  of  em- 
ploying. She  studies  me  and  goes  back  to  the 
kitchen  v/ondering,  I  believe,  whether  such 
knowledge  as  to  the  condition  in  which  dripping- 
pans,  etc.,  should  be  kept  is  a  sine  qua  non  in  the 
Episcopal  ofiice."  In  times  of  emergency  his 
helpers  were  sure  of  his  support.  One  of  them. 
Miss  Amelia  Ives,  has  recalled  in  a  private  letter 
"the  time  of  the  burning  of  St.  Mary's  School 
and  Mission  buildings  at  Santee  Agency  [Febru- 
ary, 1884].  He  was  at  the  East  meeting  his 
appointments  there  at  the  time  of  the  fire,  which 
occurred  on  Sunday  morning.  At  10  a.  m.,  a 
message  was  sent,  'Mission  buildings  burned,  all 
lives  safe.'     In  a  few  hours  the  reply   came, 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILIZATION      213 

'Start  to-night,  will  be  wath  you  Wednesday 
night';  and  he  was.  He  canceled  his  engage- 
ments and  took  the  first  train  that  made  connec- 
tions through.  When  needed  we  knew  that  we 
could  depend  upon  him  absolutely." 

In  a  recent  letter  of  a  CongregationaHst  mis- 
sionary, the  Rev.  JMary  C.  Collins,  to  a  worker 
under  Bishop  Hare,  ]\Iiss  Mary  S.  Francis,  a 
characteristic  incident  is  related:  "Once  I  was 
driving  along  the  road  on  the  bluff  back  of 
Pierre.  It  was  near  the  holidaj^  time  and  in  the 
distance  I  saw  a  horse  and  small  bugg}^  with  a 
man  walking  through  the  snowy  slush,  driving. 
In  the  buggy  was  a  great  trunk  with  the  seat  on 
top  of  it.  It  looked  strange  even  in  that  queer 
country.  As  I  approached  I  saw  it  was  Bishop 
Hare.  We  met  and  greeted  each  other. 
Laughingly  I  said,  'Well,  Bishop,  it  would  be 
strange  to  see  a  lady  with  so  large  a  trunk  that 
she  had  to  walk  in  order  to  transport  it;  but  a 
man,  and  that  man  a  Bishop,  is  beyond  my  com- 
prehension.' He  laughed  heartity,  and  said,  'It 
is  not  all  my  personal  belongings,  but  I  found 
one  of  the  belated  Christmas  boxes  for  the  school, 
and  I  knew  what  the  disappointment  would  be 
if  they  did  not  get  it.'  He  had  a  very  long 
distance  to  go,  and  was  not  a  very  young  man 
then.  The  incident  impressed  itself  upon  my 
mind."     Indeed,  his  own  love  of  fun  gave  him  a 


214     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

full  understanding  of  the  need  of  it — espe- 
cially in  the  schools.  "The  Indian's  old  life," 
he  once  wrote,  "was  like  his  moccasin,  soft  and 
easy-fitting.  The  new  life  is  like  a  tight,  hard 
leather  boot.  It  rubs  him  and  makes  him  sore. 
Therefore  the  more  innocent  fun  we  can  have  in 
our  Indian  Boarding  Schools  the  better." 

There  were  many  incidents  like  that  of  the 
trunk,  many  practical  applications  of  the  truth, 
that  "whosoever  of  you  will  be  the  chief  est,  shall 
be  the  servant  of  all."  The  clerg}'^  under  his 
charge  recognized  his  constant  care  for  them  as 
clearly  as  the  women  of  the  jMission.  And  well 
they  might,  though  none  of  them  could  have 
known  of  his  writing  to  his  sister  in  1889,  about 
a  clergyman  newly  come  to  the  mission  field; 
"My  heart  sometimes  bleeds  for  him  and  his 
wife.  What  is  old  to  me  must  seem  so  new  (and 
so  repulsive),  to  a  stranger."  One  of  the  older 
missionaries,  the  Rev.  Edward  Ashley,  of 
Cheyenne  Agency,  has  recently  written:  "To 
me  he  was  not  only  Bishop,  but  father,  brother, 
friend,  and  he  was  all  of  that  to  others  also." 
Another  of  those  who  served  longest  under  him, 
the  Rev.  H.  Burt,  of  Crow  Creek  Agencj^  took 
for  the  subject  of  his  address  at  the  Indian  Con- 
vocation of  1910  at  Greenwood,  "Bishop  Hare, 
his  constant  thoughtfulness  of  us  all."  He  re- 
called the  words  from  the  Bishop's  first  pastoral 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILIZATION      215 

letter,  "I  shall  have  you  constantly  in  my  heart," 
and  showed  how  truly  this  promise  was  fulfilled 
through  nearly  thirty-seven  years.  The  qualities 
of  thoughtfulness,  tenderness,  care  and  protec- 
tion were  those  upon  which  Bishop  Tuttle  laid 
special  emphasis  in  liis  memorial  sei*mon  on 
Bishop  Hare  in  April  of  1910.  "The  sweet  care 
that  settles  itself  for  other  men  upon  the  loved 
ones  in  the  home  flowed  forth  from  him  upon 
all  the  different  kinds  of  people  represented  in 
his  scattered  flock.  A  watchful  shepherd's  care 
outspreads  itself  over  them  all.  So  far  as  one 
man's  strength  could  reach  them,  so  far  as  one 
man's  thoughts  could  plan  for  them,  they  were 
all  thought  about  and  cared  for,  for  thirty-seven 
years." 

The  work  he  set  himself  to  do  demanded  quite 
as  much  of  the  head  as  of  the  heart.  He  was 
fortunate  in  possessing  a  rich  gift  of  practical 
wisdom,  and  he  used  it  to  the  best  purpose.  His 
working  habits  were  always  methodical.  No 
surmountable  obstacles  could  prevent  him  from 
keeping  his  appointments.  In  a  land  of  wooden 
structures  and  high  winds,  no  fire  could  destroy 
a  mission  building  but  that  the  insurance  was 
found  to  be  adequate,  and  paid  up.  His  judg- 
ment of  men  was  uncommonly  keen.  His 
marked  diplomacy  in  dealing  with  them,  in  de- 
termining, for  example,  whether  the  settlers  of 


ai6     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

a  new  town  wanted  a  church  for  its  own  sake  or 
for  advertising  purposes,  and  in  choosing  the 
course  both  of  prudence  and  of  spiritual  leader- 
ship, was  frequently  called  upon.  It  has  been 
well  said  that  one  of  the  most  remarkable  points 
in  his  administration  was  "the  fact  that  he  was 
deceived  so  seldom  and  yet  never  started  out  with 
his  guard  up  because  of  suspicion."  If  his  kind- 
ness of  heart  had  not  at  times  involved  him  in 
disappointments  at  the  hands  of  borrowers,  he 
would  have  been  hardly  human — and  a  little  dis- 
appointing besides.  His  shrewdness  in  selecting 
men  to  work  under  him  is  well  illustrated  by  an 
incident  related  by  the  former  rector  of  an  im- 
portant parish  in  New  England — an  incident  of 
later  years,  but  typical  of  a  life-long  astuteness. 
"I  received  a  telephone  message  one  morning. 

'This  is  Bishop  Hare.     I  am  at  Bishop 's. 

Could  you  possibly  come  up  to  see  me?'  I  had 
no  idea  that  he  was  in  the  East,  and  said  in- 
stantly, 'Of  course,'  and  went.  He  explained 
to  me  that  two  men  had  been  highly  recom- 
mended to  him  for  an  important  work  in  his  dis- 
trict, and  then  said  with  a  smile,  'Bishops  recom- 
mended them.  You  know  I  never  put  any  value 
upon  the  commendations  of  Bishops.  You 
know  these  men.  I  want  you  to  tell  me  whether 
my  impression  of  them  is  right.     I  will  now 


THE  HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILIZATION      217 

describe  them.'     His  description  of  them  was  as 
keen  as  it  was  accurate." 

Valuable  as  all  these  qualities  were  in  the 
cause  of  Indian  civilization,  it  is  clear  that  their 
scope  was  capable  of  wide  extension. 


VII 

THE   MISSIONARY   TO  TWO  RACES 

1883-1891 

AFTER  ten  years  of  service  primarily  to  the 
Indians,  Bishop  Hare  received  in  1883  a 
tangible  expression  of  the  confidence  of  the 
House  of  Bishops  through  a  change  in  the  limits 
of  his  jurisdiction  so  that  they  came  to  corre- 
spond virtually  with  the  limits  of  the  present 
State  of  South  Dakota.  For  Niobrara,  in  the 
title  of  his  jurisdiction,  the  name  of  South  Da- 
kota was  substituted.  The  change  was  a  clear 
recognition  of  a  new  situation.  The  towns  set- 
tled by  whites  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  state 
had  grown  too  important  to  remain,  as  they  had 
been,  a  mere  adjunct  to  the  diocese  of  Nebraska. 
The  more  recent  white  population  in  the  Black 
Hills,  along  the  western  boundary,  was  already 
separating  Bishop  Hare's  work  into  two  impor- 
tant divisions — the  Indian  and  the  white.  The 
new  arrangement  merely  made  a  geographical 
unit  of  all  the  work  for  Indians  and  whites  which 
fell  naturally  to  Bishop  Hare's  charge.     It  was 

218 


THE  MISSIONARY  TO  TWO  RACES     219 

a  change  which  he  greeted  with  entire  satisfac- 
tion. This  was  expressed  in  his  Annual  Report 
for  1884,  when  he  wrote,  "We  shall  cease  to  be 
Missionaries  to  classes  or  races,  and  be  Mission- 
aries to  men." 

On  JNIarch  5,  1884,  Bishop  Hare  issued  a  cir- 
cular letter  from  Springfield,  South  Dakota,  of 
which  the  greater  portion  read  as  follows: 

"The  House  of  Bishops,  in  October  last,  added 
a  large  part  of  Eastern  Dakota  to  the  Mission- 
ary district  formerly  under  my  charge,  and  gave 
the  whole  district  the  name  of  Southern  Dakota. 
I  have  just  made  my  first  visitations  through  the 
new  portion  of  my  field.  No  words  can  express 
the  splendid  opportunity  which  I  find  for  the 
planting  of  the  Church. 

"The  immigration  has  been  without  precedent. 
More  land  was  taken  up  by  settlers  in  Dakota 
during  the  past  year  than  in  all  the  other  Ter- 
ritories together. 

"Towns  are  growing  up  everywhere,  with  al- 
most magical  rapidity.  The  new  comers  are 
largely  Americans  and  Canadians;  a  very  intel- 
ligent class,  and  a  more  than  ordinary  nimiber 
are  friendly  to  our  Church.  Everywhere  goes 
up  the  schoolliouse,  and  everywhere  the  people 
want  churches  and  the  institutions  of  the 
Church. 

"In  this  behalf  they  make  me  generous  offers. 


220     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

For  example:  The  people  of  Sioux  Falls,  a 
town  situated  in  the  midst  of  a  rich  agricultural 
country,  and  possessed  of  a  valuable  water  power 
and  inexhaustible  quarries  of  jasper,  offer  me 
$10,000  in  cash  and  lands,  provided  I  can  raise 
an  equal  amount,  and  will  establish  in  their  town 
a  school  for  girls,  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Episcopal  Church.  I  must  be  able  to  meet  such 
an  offer  as  this,  or  seen  almost  contemptible." 

The  remainder  of  the  letter  was  an  appeal  for 
financial  aid,  the  response  to  which  enabled  him 
in  September,  1884,  to  lay  the  corner  stone  of  All 
Saints  School  for  Girls  at  Sioux  Falls,  and  in 
September,  1885,  to  open  its  doors  to  pupils. 
The  school,  intended  for  the  daughters  of  his  mis- 
sionaries and  for  other  white  girls  to  whom  a 
Church  boarding  school  of  the  first  order,  near 
their  homes,  could  impart  the  influences  which 
otherwise  they  must  go  far  to  seek,  embodied 
some  of  his  most  cherished  ideals.  As  it  was  his 
wish  in  the  Indian  boarding-schools  to  prepare 
the  young  to  carry  back  to  their  homes  some  of 
the  underlying  principles  of  Christian  civiliza- 
tion, so  he  felt  that  each  of  the  more  privileged 
girls  of  his  own  race  who  should  fall  under  the 
influence  of  such  a  school  as  he  meant  All  Saints 
to  be  might  bear  to  her  own  surroundings 
through  life  something  of  cultivation  and  char- 
acter which  could  best  be  molded  and  guided 


BISHOP  HARE  IN  THE  CHAPEL  OF  ALL  SAINTS 
SCHOOL 


THE  MISSIONARY  TO  TWO  RACES     221 

through  daily  contact  with  the  highest  standards 
of  living.  To  this  end  he  was  most  careful  in 
the  selection  of  teachers,  and  in  the  planning  of 
secular  and  religious  instruction.  Most  impor- 
tant of  all,  he  made  Sioux  Falls  his  episcopal 
residence,  and  All  Saints  School  his  personal 
home.  Here  for  the  remainder  of  his  days  he 
made  a  part  of  a  delightful  family  life,  in  which 
Miss  Helen  S.  Peabody,  the  principal  of  the 
school,  and  her  sister.  Miss  Mary  B.  Peabody, 
his  private  secretary,  exercised  a  congenial 
feminine  control.  Called  afield  for  the  planting 
and  nourishing  of  new  missions  to  men  and 
women  of  his  own  race,  for  continuing  his  work 
among  the  Indians,  for  journeys  to  the  East  in 
the  interest  of  his  work,  or  abroad  in  the  interest 
of  his  health,  he  returned  invariably  to  All 
Saints  School  with  the  feeling  of  one  who  is 
coming  home.  For  all  which  the  School  supplied 
to  the  life  of  South  Dakota,  it  contributed  an 
important  counterpart  in  the  life  of  Bishop  Hare 
himself. 

The  work  of  every  Missionary  Bishop  in  a 
rapidly  growing  frontier  community  must  be 
much  like  that  of  every  other.  With  the  increase 
of  population  which  is  supposed  to  bring  civihza- 
tion  in  its  train,  the  agencies  of  civilization  are 
to  be  provided.  The  secular  agencies  spring  up 
of  themselves.     The  spiritual  agencies  are  plants 


222      LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

of  more  delicate  growth,  and  call  for  careful 
cultivation.  This  is  precisely  what  Bishop  Hare 
was  ready  and  qualified  to  give — and  he  gave  it 
w  ith  as  little  sparing  of  himself  as  in  ministering 
to  his  original  charge.  A  single  letter  written 
soon  after  the  extension  of  his  work  must  serve 
to  illustrate  a  wide  and  long-continued  activity: 

"I  am  on  a  visitation  and  preaching  trip 
through  the  Southern  part  of  the  white  part  of 
my  field. 

"Saturday,  April  18,  I  reached  Madison,  a 
new  town  of  about  one  thousand  people,  where 
I  was  met  by  the  Rev.  John  JMorris,  who  has 
been  working  as  a  general  IMissionary  along  the 
Southern  Division  of  the  Chicago,  JMilwaukee  & 
St.  Paul  Railroad.  At  Madison  w^e  have  a  lit- 
tle flock,  but  no  church,  though  by  Father  Mor- 
ris' efforts,  a  beautiful  site  has  been  obtained,  one 
lot  by  gift  and  two  lots  by  purchase. 

"Sunday  a.  m.  we  had  service  and  the  Holy 
Communion  and  then  a  talk  with  the  people. 
We  then  drove  twenty-two  miles,  in  the  rain,  to 
Howard,  a  town  of  eight  hundred  people,  and 
had  service  there  at  night.  Here  again  we  have 
a  little  flock  of  earnest  people  but  no  church, 
and  here  again  Father  JMorris  has  secured  a  most 
eligible  location  for  the  church,  one  lot  as  a  gift 
and  two  by  purchase. 

"Monday  we  went  to  Carthage,  a  little  town 


THE  MISSIONARY  TO  TWO  RACES      223 

just  begun,  and  had  service  there  in  the  evening. 
Here  there  is  no  church  building  of  any  sort 
whatever.  The  people  were  full  of  hope  last 
year  that  they  would  be  able  to  put  up  a  build- 
ing, but  a  disastrous  hail  storm  swept  away  their 
crops;  a  little  later  the  town  of  Carthage,  New 
York,  from  which  many  of  the  inhabitants  came, 
and  from  wliich  their  town  was  named,  and  to 
which  they  looked  for  some  help,  was  devastated 
by  fire.  We  had  service  in  the  schoolhouse,  and 
did  all  we  could  to  encourage  the  people. 

"Tuesday,  April  21,  we  came  to  Woonsocket, 
a  town  which  had  no  existence  two  years  ago  and 
now  numbers  about  nine  hundred  souls!  Here 
again  we  have  a  little  flock  of  people  who  love 
the  Church,  and  valuable  lots,  half  by  purchase 
and  half  by  gift. 

"Wednesday,  April  22,  a  railroad  ride  of  one 
hundred  and  eighty  miles  brought  me  to  Elk 
Point.  The  train  was  several  hours  late,  and  it 
was  not  till  nine  o'clock  at  night  that  I  reached 
the  church.  I  found  the  venerable  Father 
Himes  and  the  congregation  waiting  for  me, 
however,  and  I  had  the  pleasure  of  speaking  to 
them.  The  church  is  a  model  of  neatness  and 
shows  everywhere  touches  of  the  taste  and  loving 
care  with  which  the  good  missionary  watches 
over  it  and  labors  for  it.  Father  Himes  will 
reach  his  eightieth  birthday  within  a  few  weeks, 


224.     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

but  his  strength  and  health  are  wonderfully  pre- 
served to  him,  and  he  moves  about  with  a  quick, 
elastic  step  and  preaches  with  a  fire  which  puts 
some  of  our  younger  folk  to  shame. 

"Thursday  we  went  and  held  service  together 
at  his  other  station,  Vermillion,  where  the  little 
church  is  as  neat  and  pretty  as  its  twin  sister  at 
Elk  Point. 

"Saturday,  I  took  the  cars  and  after  ten  hours* 
travel  reached  Aberdeen.  Here  I  had  two  hours 
to  spare  before  taking  the  train  which  was  to 
carry  me  to  Groton,  where  I  was  to  have  service 
Sunday  morning.  We  have  no  clergyman  at 
either  of  these  towns,  nor  anywhere  in  the  vi- 
cinit}^;  but  I  found  six  adults  ready  for  baptism, 
prepared  chiefly  through  the  zeal  of  one  good 
Churchwoman.  They  had  gathered  by  my  ap- 
pointment in  her  home  and  I  occupied  mj^  spare 
two  hours  first  in  instruction  and  then  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  Baptism,  an  exceedingly  touch- 
ing service. 

"Leaving  word  that  I  should  come  back  next 
day  (Sunday),  by  the  freight  train,  and  hold 
service,  I  then  went  to  Groton.  Here  Mr.  W. 
Y.  Brewster,  a  noble  young  layman,  has  main- 
tained the  sei*vices,  sustained  by  a  few  devoted 
Church  people,  for  two  years;  and  Sunday 
morning,  April  20,  it  was  with  rare  satisfaction 
that  I  ministered  to  them  in  their  pretty  church. 


THE  MISSIONARY  TO  TWO  RACES      225 

The  freight  came  along  in  due  season,  as  ex- 
pected, and  carried  me  back  to  Aberdeen,  in  time 
for  service  Sunday  night.  The  Presbyterian 
Church  building  was  kindly  loaned  us;  all  seats 
and  every  available  space  was  crowded  by  inter- 
ested people.  The  services  were  hearty,  a  class 
of  nine  were  confirmed,  and  I  believe  a  deep 
impression  made  on  many  hearts.  The  service 
was  intermitted  for  ten  or  fifteen  minutes  after 
the  confirmation,  and  time  given  for  informal 
conference  Avith  the  people,  then  the  major  part 
of  the  congregation  dispersed  and  the  few,  some 
twenty,  remained  to  celebrate  the  Lord's  Supper. 
"Would  tliat  devout  laymen  in  the  East  who 
have  means  could  by  turns  become  a  JMissionary 
Bishop,  and  for  a  week  or  two  meet  the  people 
in  town  after  town  as  I  am  now  doing,  and  be 
confronted  with  the  opportunities  I  see  of  meet- 
ing religious  want  and  building  up  the  interests 
of  the  Church.  Evei'j'^vhere  hereabout  you  meet 
with  enterprising,  energetic  people  who  are  ready 
to  make  the  bravest  ventures  if  they  think  they 
give  any  promise  of  return.  A  whole  com- 
munity, religious  and  profane  alike,  will  unite 
in  an  effort  to  build  a  church,  each  expecting  to 
reap  from  it  the  benefit  which  he  most  desires; 
one  the  appreciation  of  the  value  of  his  town 
lots,  another  the  gratification  of  his  wife  and 
children,  a  tliird  the  encouragement  of  morals 


226     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

and  religion,  and  all,  the  general  improvement 
of  their  town,  and  they  are  thus  enabled  to  make 
a  Missionary  Bishop  oiFers,  in  aid  of  Church  and 
School  work,  so  liberal  that  people  at  the  East 
leap  to  the  conclusion  that  we  must  be  living 
among  a  wealthy  people.  But  in  fact,  the 
means  of  all  are  scant.  All  live  for  the  future, 
and  all  sorts  of  economies  are  resorted  to  in  or- 
der to  make  that  future  sure.  A  family  of  five 
or  six,  for  instance,  will  live  in  two  rooms  and 
in  order  to  save  fuel,  one  stove  will  be  made,  by 
the  use  of  a  drum  in  one  room,  to  heat  both — or 
if  the  house  be  larger,  the  bedroom  will  be  made 
to  open  out  of  one  central  room,  and  one  stove 
placed  in  this  central  room  will  be  made  to  mod- 
erate the  temperature  in  them  all. 

"Few  are  able  to  employ  a  servant.  Husband 
and  wife  bear  all  and  do  all  things  in  hope  of 
the  good  time  coming. 

"  'People's  pockets  are  not  full  here,'  said  a 
man  in  my  hearing  the  other  day  in  apology  for 
the  inferior  character  of  his  conveyance.  'No,' 
said  another  with  a  chuckle,  'if  their  pockets  had 
been  full,  they  would  not  have  come  so  far.' 

"This  is  the  state  of  things.  Imagine  my 
amazement,  then,  when,  after  telling  in  a  sermon 
in  New  York  some  months  ago  of  the  generous 
enterprise  with  which  the  people  of  a  town  out 
here  had,  by  a  general  subscription  of  the  towns- 


THE  MISSIONARY  TO  TWO  RACES      227 

people,  raised  ten  thousand  dollars  in  cash  and 
land,  and  placed  it  in  my  hands  in  order  to 
enable  me  to  erect  a  Church  School,  the  most 
ostensible  result  of  my  rehearsal  of  this  telling 
fact  on  that  occasion  was  not  check  after  check 
from  liberal  givers  accompanied  by  the  words 
'we  like  to  help  those  who  help  themselves;  here 
is  some  aid  toward  meeting  those  enterprising 
people  half  w^ay,'  but  an  article  in  the  Living 
Church  headed,  'JMissions  to  the  well-to-do'  in 
which  the  writer  argued  that  it  was  not  the 
Church's  work  to  extend  missionary  help  to  those 
who  were  so  well  off! 

"The  difference  between  us  seems  to  be  that  I 
think  the  Church  ought  to  establish  herself  in  new 
communities  among  the  'the  well-to-do,'  and  he 
thinks  that  her  only  work  is  to  establish  herself 
among  'the  ne'er  do  wells' " 

Thus  he  went  about,  encouraging  those  who 
could  help  themselves  to  do  so,  bringing  from  the 
East  all  the  help  he  could  secure  from  the  Mis- 
sionaiy  Board,  and  from  generous  friends  who 
had  learned  that  any  appeal  from  Bishop  Hare 
was  worth  heeding.  To  Mrs.  John  Jacob  Astor, 
Miss  Catherine  Lorillard  Wolfe  and  Mr.  Henry 
Dexter  of  New  York,  to  Mr.  Felix  R.  Brunot 
of  Pittsburgh  and  to  many  others,  some  of  whom 
survive,  he  knew  that  he  could  turn  with  confi- 


228     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

dence  as  special  opportunities  presented  them- 
selves. A  practical  wisdom  so  trusted  expressed 
itself  in  effective  machinery  of  administration. 
The  field  was  divided  into  the  Eastern  and,  later, 
the  Black  Hills  Deaneries  for  the  white  popula- 
tion, and  the  Xiobrara  Deanery  for  the  Indian 
stations.  A  well-adjusted  system  was  laid  out, 
with  a  cathedral  at  Sioux  Falls,  with  responsi- 
bilities carefully  assigned  throughout  the  juris- 
diction to  rural  deans,  to  white  and  native  clergy, 
to  catechists  and  helpers.  If  there  was  ever  a 
danger  that  the  increasing  demands  of  the  whites 
should  overshadow  the  interests  of  the  Indians, 
the  system,  of  gradual  growth,  was  so  ordered 
that  such  a  possibilitj^  was  never  realized. 

"How  shall  we  reach  the  fuU-blooded  In- 
dians?" a  Quaker  missionary  was  once  asked. 
She  replied,  according  to  a  story  in  which  Bishop 
Hare  took  pleasure,  "To  reach  the  full-blooded 
Indian,  send  after  him  a  full-blooded  Christian." 
The  result  of  sending  forth  so  full-blooded  a 
Christian  as  Bishop  Hare  was  clearly  manifest 
by  the  time  the  extension  of  his  work  was  or- 
dered. In  place  of  the  three  native  and  five 
white  clergy,  and  five  women  helpers  whom  he 
had  found  in  Niobrara,  there  were  under  liim  in 
1884,  five  native  clergy,  five  native  candidates 
for  the  ministry'-,  and  twelve  native  catechists; 
seventeen  white  clergy  and  four  white  catechists ; 


THE  MISSIONARY  TO  TWO  RACES     229 

and  twelve  women  helpers.  In  the  four  Indian 
boarding--schools  he  could  report  in  1884  an 
average  attendance  of  forty  pupils  at  St.  Paul's, 
of  tliirty-four  at  St.  Mary's,  of  thirty-four  at 
St.  John's,  and  of  twenty-three  at  Hope  School. 
By  this  tinie,  moreover,  many  pupils  had  carried 
the  teachings  and  influence  of  each  of  those 
schools  back  into  their  native  surroundings,  and 
some  of  them  had  gone  on  to  the  Indian  Schools 
in  the  East.  In  his  Ninth  Annual  Report 
(1881),  Bishop  Hare  wrote:  "I  hail  with  the 
warmest  satisfaction  the  boarding-school  work 
for  Indian  youth,  which  is  attracting  so  much 
attention  and  commendation  at  Hampton  and 
Carlisle.  We  shall  gladly  learn  from  the  excel- 
lent management  of  those  schools  wherever  we 
can,  and  shall  do  all  in  our  power  to  make  those 
schools  and  ours  (as  they  ought  to  be) ,  mutually 
helpful  and  not  rival,  much  less  antagonistic. 
It  is  a  satisfaction  that  school  work  which  we 
have  been  quietly  doing  for  eight  years  in  Nio- 
brara has  been,  by  means  of  the  Hampton  and 
Carlisle  schools,  commended  so  generally  to  the 
Christian  people  of  the  land."  Captain  (now 
General)  Pratt,  for  twenty-five  years  head  of  the 
Carlisle  school,  has  recently  given  in  a  private  let- 
ter an  interesting  reminiscence  of  Bishop  Hare's 
more  personal  relation  to  his  work.  Puzzled  at 
first,  he  says,  to  know  exactly  what  his  real  posi- 


230     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

tion  was,  he  submitted  the  question  to  Bishop 
Hare.  "He  instantly  replied,  'You  are  the 
father  of  the  place.'  From  that  time,  the  chil- 
dren understood  that  I  was  their  'School  Father,' 
and  in  my  files  I  have  thousands  of  personal 
letters  from  them  in  which  they  address  me  as 
'Dear  School  Father.'  " 

A  pleasant  evidence  of  the  linking  together  of 
the  Eastern  and  Western  schools  was  exhibited 
in  the  summer  of  1881,  when  some  Indians  who 
had  gone  from  the  Rosebud  and  Pine  Ridge 
Agencies  to  Carlisle  made  and  sent  to  Bishop 
Hare  a  set  of  double  harness — "their  work"  and 
"their  gift."  Over  against  such  a  contact  with 
young  Indians  under  civilizing  influence  it  is  in- 
teresting to  set  the  item  that  in  1881  five  chil- 
dren from  the  camp  of  the  recently  captured 
Sitting  Bull,  one  of  them  a  son  of  Sitting  Bull 
himself,  were  received  into  the  mission  schools. 
In  August,  1883,  Bishop  Hare  wrote  in  his  An- 
nual Report:  "Six  boys  from  the  captive  band 
of  Sitting  Bull  have  been  in  St.  Paul's  School 
during  the  past  year,  an  addition  of  three  to  the 
number  who  were  there  last  year  from  that  band. 
It  sets  one  to  thinking,  the  fact  that  there  were 
no  six  boys  in  the  scliool  quicker  to  learn,  more 
tractable  and  more  ready  to  coalesce  with  the  gen- 
eral life  of  the  school  than  this  group  fresh  from 
the  wildest  Indian  life,  wliich  had  spurned  the 


THE  MISSIONARY  TO  TWO  RACES      231 

control  of  the  Government,  and  asked  only  the 
privilege  of  ceaseless  hunting  and  roaming. 
How  hard  it  is  sometimes  to  square  our  theories 
with  our  facts!" 

Still  another  token  of  the  new  order  dawning 
for  the  Indians  came  in  1891,  when  the  daughter 
of  the  celebrated  Standing  Rock  chief,  Gall, 
leader  of  the  Indians  in  the  Custer  fight,  pre- 
sented, at  the  annual  Indian  Convocation  over 
which  Bishop  Hare  presided,  an  offering  of  eight 
hundred  dollars  on  behalf  of  the  Niobrara  branch 
of  the  Woman's  Auxiliary,  made  up  of  Indian 
women.  On  the  fourth  of  the  next  July,  Chief 
Gall  himself  was  baptized  in  the  Episcopal 
Church. 

To  every  Indian  confirmed  by  Bishop  Hare 
he  made  a  personal  gift  of  a  small  metal  cross, 
as  a  memento  of  the  event.  It  was  a  bit  of 
symbolism  w^hich  the  Indians  prized  most  highly. 
At  least  on  one  occasion — in  the  Zoological 
Gardens  at  Cincinnati  in  1896 — it  led  to  an  in- 
teresting recognition,  by  a  former  mission 
worker,  of  a  considerable  number  from  a  band 
of  a  hundred  Sioux  giving  an  exhibition  there, 
and  to  consequent  pleasure  and  profit  for  the 
homesick  Indians.  The  value  of  a  symboHsm 
within  the  reach  of  an  Indian's  poetic  under- 
standing was  clearly  recognized  by  Bishop  Hare. 
Of  "ritualism"  in  the  accepted  sense  of  the  term, 


232     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

he  once  wrote  to  his  sister  tliat  it  "is  just  about  as 
well  suited  to  their  souls  as  patent  leathers,  kids, 
musk  and  a  dangling  eyeglass  are  to  their  manly- 
sinewy  bodies."  Yet  declaring  himself  in  his 
Convocation  Address  of  1890,  "no  advocate  of 
excessive  ceremonial,"  he  warned  liis  clergy 
against  "the  temptation,"  in  a  new  country, 
"rather  to  carelessness  than  to  punctilio." 
Though  dignity  was  inseparable  in  his  mind  from 
the  work  he  was  doing  and  directing,  he  could 
say  again  to  his  clergy,  in  1893:  "When  I  con- 
sider all  kinds  and  conditions  of  men,  the  same- 
ness and  inflexibleness  of  our  services  as  we  now 
conduct  them  become  to  me  oppressive. "  To 
those  unf amihar  with  the  ways  of  the  Church  he 
felt  that  the  clergyman  "should  go  forth  free 
from  hook,  both  Bible  and  Prayer  Book,  free 
from  manuscript,  and  free  from  rubric,  too,  and 
take  men  as  he  finds  them  and  speak  to  them 
from  a  full  heart  and  head  that  which  he  thinks 
will  prove  God's  word  in  season."  For  the 
specific  obligation  of  the  Church  to  the  Indians 
he  spoke  with  all  his  vigor  in  his  Fourteenth  An- 
nual Report:  "The  proximity  of  Christianity 
has  undermined  the  old  religion  even  of  those 
among  whom  we  have  not  had  the  means  as  yet 
to  introduce  the  truth.  That  old  religion  was  a 
great  fact  and  a  great  power  in  their  lives.  It 
had  its  sacred  stories  which  fed  the  religious  in- 


THE  MISSIONARY  TO  TWO  RACES     233 

stinct.  The  changes  of  the  season  and  the  events 
of  individual  and  social  life  were  marked  by  holy- 
rites,  made  attractive  by  singing,  processions  and 
dances.  But  the  whole  system  is  going  to  pieces 
because  of  the  proximity  of  civilization  and  the 
mission.  The  people  are  disconcerted  and  per- 
plexed. They  know  not  which  way  to  turn. 
They  are  helpless.  They  will  soon  become,  I 
fear,  reckless  and  do  desperate  deeds,  or  they  will 
become  broken-hearted  and  sunk  into  pauperism, 
loathsome  disease  and  death.  .  .  .  Every 
sentiment  of  honor,  and  of  Christian  duty  de- 
mands, I  conceive,  that  we  shall  fulfil  the  expec- 
tation which  our  presence  and  past  work  have 
excited,  and  that  we  shall  give  of  our  abundance 
to  those  from  whom  we  have  directly  or  indirectly 
taken  so  much." 

As  in  the  earliest  days  he  was  still  finding  that 
much  was  to  be  given  simply  through  using  his 
influence  to  bring  about  a  fair  treatment  of  the 
Indians  by  the  Government,  as  represented  by 
the  Indian  Agents.  Conditions  had  improved 
since  President  Lincoln  told  the  anecdote  related 
in  Bishop  Whipple's  Lights  and  Shadows  of  a 
Long  Episcopate:  "Bishop,"  said  Lincoln,  "a 
man  thought  that  monkeys  could  pick  cotton  bet- 
ter than  negroes  could  because  they  were  quicker 
and  their  fingers  smaller.  He  turned  a  lot  of 
them  into  his  cotton  field,  but  he  found  that  it 


234*     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

took  two  overseers  to  watch  one  monkey.  It 
needs  more  than  one  honest  man  to  watch  one 
Indian  agent."  But  even  so  late  as  1901,  Bishop 
Hare  quoted  in  his  Annual  Report  the  outspoken 
utterance  of  a  representative  of  the  diminishing 
order  of  men  who  found  the  influence  of  the 
boarding-schools  and  mission  work  in  general 
detrimental  to  their  selfish  interests :  "Damn  the 
missionaries ;  if  they  were  all  in  hell,  there  would 
be  some  fun  in  running  an  agency."  In  an  early 
pamphlet,  "The  True  Policy  towards  the  Indian 
Tribes"  (about  1878),  Bishop  Hare  drew  a 
vivid  picture  of  the  evil  wrought  by  agents  of 
the  inferior  type  and  of  the  possibilities  for  good 
under  more  enlightened  conditions.  To  create 
and  nourish  these  conditions  he  brought  all  his 
personal  and  official  influence  to  bear,  never  fail- 
ing to  recognize  and  support  the  faithful  agents 
with  whom  he  could  work  in  sympathy.  If  he 
had  not  been  equally  quick  to  recognize  the  diffi- 
culties and  humors  of  the  service,  he  would  hardly 
have  printed  in  his  diocesan  paper,  The  Church 
News,  the  following  letter  from  an  Indian  to 
the  agent  in  authority  over  him : 

''Dear  Friend: 

"I  want  to  say  few  words  that  I  feel  unhappy 
to  myself.  I  did  not  want  to  come  and  say  these 
to  you,  because  I  get  mad  and  sorrow,  but  it  is 


THE  MISSIONARY  TO  TWO  RACES      235 

not  you.  This  is  the  words  I  want  you  to  know 
and  see  about.  Here  is  an  old  woman  comes 
from  Little  Oak  Creek  Camp.  She  is  the  one 
that  makes  me  feel  sorrow  every  day,  and  now 
she  catch  me  up  to  mad  this  day,  but  I  did  not 
say  any  words  to  her.  She  talks  every  day  in  bad 
words.  Nothing  but  the  bad  w^ords  every  day, 
and  I  am  very  tired  of  it  now,  so  I  do  not  want 
her  to  stay  here  any  more.  So  I  want  you 
to  send  her  off  to  her  place  at  Little  Oak  Creek, 
and  if  you  cannot  send  her  off,  I  will  move  out 
from  here.  I  get  tired  of  this  woman  sure. 
Send  your  policemen,  they  will  send  her  off,  and 
if  they  don't,  I  will  do  any  way  to  my  pleases, 
because  she  spoils  the  whole  family,  and  I  hate 
that  business.  And  if  she  stays  here,  we  might 
all  dead  by  sorrow.  If  she  gets  rested  some- 
times, I  wouldn't  say  nothing,  but  kept  hold  on 
it.  That's  the  reason  we  get  tired.  That  is  all 
for  to-day. 

"Johnny  Comes  Out  Howling." 

Such  humors  by  the  way  were  at  best  mere 
alleviations  in  the  serious  task  of  looking  to  the 
guardians  of  the  guarded.  After  nearly  twenty 
years  of  ungrudging  service,  direct  and  indirect, 
resulting  in  a  substantial  advance  towards  civili- 
zation, there  came  in  the  "Messiah  Craze"  of 
1890,    and    in    the    culminating    disaster    of 


236     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

Wounded  Knee  Creek,  a  discouraging  recru- 
descence of  savagery.  On  November  20,  1890, 
the  Sioux  Falls  Press  printed  the  following 
statement  from  Bishop  Hare,  recently  returned 
from  the  Standing  Rock  and  Rosebud  Agencies, 
on  the  origin  of  the  trouble : 

"Educational  and  missionary  work  has  ad- 
vanced rapidly  among  the  Indians  of  South  Da- 
kota, and  the  whole  Indian  country  is  dotted  over 
with  chapels  and  schoolhouses.  The  Indians 
have  been  so  well  disposed  that  even  women 
teachers  have  been  living  without  fear  of  mo- 
lestation at  remote  and  isolated  points  in  the  In- 
dian country  with  no  neighbors  but  Indians. 

"This  quiet  has  lately,  however,  been  in  a  de- 
gree disturbed.  A  delusion  has  taken  possession 
of  the  minds  of  the  wilder  elements  among  the 
Indians.  The  leaders  in  the  movement  have  in- 
vigorated old  heathen  ideas  with  snatches  of 
Christian  truth  and  have  managed  to  excite  an 
amount  of  enthusiasm  which  is  amazing.  They 
teach  that  the  Son  of  God  will  presently  appear 
as  the  avenger  of  the  cause  of  the  wdld  Indian; 
the  earth  wiU  shiver;  a  great  wave  of  new  earth 
will  overspread  the  present  face  of  the  world  and 
bury  all  the  whites  and  all  the  Indians  who  imi- 
tate their  ways;  while  the  real  Indians  will  find 
themselves  on  the  surface  of  the  new  earth,  bask- 
ing in  the  light.     The  old  ways  will  all  be  re- 


THE  MISSIONARY  TO  TWO  RACES      237 

stored  in  primitive  vigor  and  glory,  and  the  buf- 
falo, antelope  and  deer  will  return. 

"The  devotees  of  these  ideas  are  dressed  in 
their  exercises  in  special  garb  (a  sliirt  made  of 
calico  and  worn  like  a  blouse,  called  by  them  'the 
holy'  or  'mysterious  shirt'),  and  with  the  cry, 
'The  buffalo  are  coming!'  the  people  form  rings 
by  joining  hands  and  wliirling  themselves  round 
and  round  in  wild  dances  until  they  fall  to  the 
ground  unconscious.  They  are  then  said  to  be 
dead.  Their  leaders  promise  that  while  in  this 
state  they  will  be  transported  to  the  spirit  world 
and  will  see  their  friends  who  have  died  and  the 
Son  of  God,  and  accordingly,  when  they  recover 
consciousness,  they  tell  of  the  strange  visions  they 
have  enjoyed. 

"I  look  upon  the  movement  as  the  effort  of 
heathenism  grown  desperate  to  restore  its  vigor 
and  reinstate  itself.  INIany  of  the  missionaries 
have  long  been  expecting  such  a  struggle. 

"The  spread  of  civilization  has  alarmed  the 
heathen  party.  Pressed  on  the  one  hand  by  the 
advance  of  the  whites  and  on  the  other  by  the  civ- 
ilized and  progressive  party  among  the  Indians, 
the  wilder  Indians  find  themselves  cornered  and 
are  like  wild  animals  at  bay,  a  state  which  is  apt 
to  give  rise  to  delusion  and  desperate  measures. 
The  present  delusion,  which,  promising  as  it  does, 
the  confusion  of  all  civilized  people  and  the  sur- 


238     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

vival  of  the  advocates  of  the  old  Indian  life, 
comes  to  the  Indians  very  opportunely  and  has 
to  an  alarming  degree  taken  possession  of  their 
minds.  They  gather  together  at  points  removed 
as  much  as  possible  from  observation  and  inter- 
ference, and  there,  by  harangues  and  songs  and 
dances,  work  themselves  into  a  frenzy  of  excite- 
ment, destroying  the  implements  and  symbols  of 
civilization  and  supplanting  them  by  relics  of 
barbarism.  The  excitement  is,  however,  confined 
to  particular  locations,  and  in  many  parts  of  the 
Indian  country  you  hear  less  of  it  than  one  does 
in  Sioux  Falls.  Any  attack  of  the  Indians  upon 
our  forts  and  settlements  seems  to  me  utterly  im- 
probable. The  Almighty  is  about  to  dispose  of 
the  whites  quite  effectually,  according  to  the 
preaching  of  their  prophets. 

"So  far  as  I  am  able  to  judge,  the  movement 
is  not  gaining,  but  rather  the  reverse.  I  should 
fear  the  results  of  forcible  interference  with  them 
in  their  present  excitement.  Time  wiU  reveal 
the  deception  practiced  by  the  ring-leaders,  for 
the  promised  crisis  will  not  come,  and  meanwhile 
the  Indians  will  have  danced  themselves  out. 
Their  prophets  have  said  that  the  quaking  of  the 
earth  and  the  coming  of  the  Messiah  would  oc- 
cur at  the  coming  of  the  next  new  moon,  and 
when  their  predictions  are  not  fulfilled  the  excite- 
ment will  be  allayed.     Of  course  this  strjinge 


THE  MISSIONARY  TO  TWO  RACES     239 

craze  revives  many  dear  memories  and  appeals 
strongly  to  the  race  feeling  even  in  the  civilized 
Indians.  In  these  old  ideas  the  being  of  many 
of  them  moves  with  the  ease  of  old  habit,  like 
machinery  well  oiled.  In  Christian  thought  and 
life,  their  natures,  not  yet  thoroughly  habituated 
to  them,  move  like  machinery  when  dry.  Many 
of  the  Indians  look  upon  the  whole  movement, 
however,  with  disdain,  and  unless  some  unfortu- 
nate move  should  precipitate  organized  resistance 
on  the  part  of  the  deluded  Indian,  the  craze,  like 
many  another,  will  run  its  course  and  pass  away." 

Unfortunately,  the  craze  was  to  have  its  tragic 
consequences — more  tragic  for  the  Indians  than 
for  anyone  else.  So  far  as  the  white  settlers 
were  concerned — there  w^ere  some  who  seized  the 
opportunity  to  show  themselves  far  less  coura- 
geous than  many  missionaries  and  Christian  In- 
dians. The  Indians  afterwards  realized  that 
through  all  the  excitement  they  had  no  stauncher 
friends  than  the  "White  Robes" — as  they  called 
the  missionaries  of  the  Episcopal  Church. 
Bishop  Hare  himself,  beyond  anxiety  for  his  peo- 
ple of  both  races,  suffered  little  except  in  finding 
himself  the  subject  of  an  Indian  rumor  to  the  ef- 
fect that  when  he  and  one  of  his  missionaries  at- 
tempted to  read  the  Bible,  the  Ghost  Dance  in- 
fluence was  so  strong  that  they  had  to  lay  it 


240     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

down.  His  anxiety  called  him,  according  to  the 
"Bishop's  Record"  in  The  Church  News  of 
January,  1891,  "hither  and  thither  to  meet  spe- 
cial needs  as  they  arose."  First  he  went  to  the 
Standing  Rock  Reserve,  then  late  in  December, 
to  the  Pine  Ridge  Reserve,  on  which  the 
Wounded  Knee  fight  had  just  occurred.  "My 
visit  to  Pine  Ridge  Resen^e,"  he  \^a•ote,  "brought 
me  to  a  scene  which  contrasted  so  shockingly  with 
all  the  signs  of  progress  and  peace  which  have 
greeted  me  on  my  visits  for  six  or  eight  years 
past  that  time  will  not  efface  it  from  my  memory. 
The  friendly  Indians  had  all  been  called  in  from 
the  ten  or  twelve  farming  settlements  around 
their  little  churches,  and  were  huddled  together 
in  the  tepees  of  old  times  just  south  of  the 
Agency,  and  on  entering  the  church,  two  sights 
presented  themselves.  On  the  church  floor,  in- 
stead of  the  pews  on  either  side  of  the  aisle,  two 
rows  of  bleeding,  groaning,  wounded  men, 
women  and  children;  tending  them  two  military 
surgeons  and  a  native  physician  assisted  by  the 
missionary  and  his  helpers,  assiduity  and  tender- 
ness marking  all.  Above,  the  Christmas  green 
was  still  hanging.  To  one  of  my  moods  they 
seemed  a  mockery  to  all  my  faith  and  hope;  to 
another  they  seemed  an  inspiration  still  singing, 
though  in  a  minor  key,  'Peace,  good  Mqll  to 
men.'  "     In  a  pamphlet  of  1891,  entitled,  "Who 


THE  MISSIONARY  TO  TWO  RACES     241 

Shall  be  the  Victim,"  Bishop  Hare  went  some- 
what more  fully  into  the  political  and  physical 
causes  of  the  outbreak  than  in  the  newspaper 
article  already  drawn  upon,  and  followed  the 
episode  to  its  close.  Of  the  general  principles 
involved,  the  pamphlet  considered  the  three  plans 
of  Indian  i^olicy — "fight  them,"  "feed  them"  and 
"lead  them  to  self-support" — and  made  a  plea 
for  the  final  method.  To  the  distracted  natives, 
the  pamphlet  more  sj^ecifically  referred  as  fol- 
lows : 

"All  things  were  against  them,  and  to  add  to 
the  calamity,  many  Indians,  especially  the  wilder 
element,  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  brood  over  their 
misfortunes.  While  in  this  unliappy  state,  the 
story  of  a  3Iessiah  coming,  who  would  reinstate 
the  Indian,  with  its  Ghost  Dance  and  strange 
hallucinations,  spread  among  the  heathen  part  of 
the  people.  The  Christian  Indians,  on  the  whole, 
maintained  their  stand  with  praiseworthy  pa- 
tience and  fortitude;  but  the  dancers  were  in  a 
state  of  exaltation  approaching  phrensy.  Re- 
straint only  increased  their  madness.  The  dan- 
cers were  found  to  be  well  armed  and  to  have 
donned  a  sacred  shirt  of  talismanic  power.  In- 
subordination broke  out  on  several  reserves. 
The  authority  of  the  Agent  and  of  the  native 
police  was  overthrown.  The  civilized  Indians 
were   intimidated.     Alarm   spread    everywhere. 


242     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

No  one  knew  what  was  coming.  The  military- 
was  summoned  to  the  Agencies.  Their  appear- 
ance did  not  dampen  zeal,  but  fanned  the  flames. 
Why  should  they  fear  who  wore  the  bullet-proof 
sacred  shirt  ?  ^  Hence,  when  Colonel  Forsythe's 
cavalry  overtook  Big  Foot's  band  (off  their  own 
reserve,  and  apparently  bent  on  mischief),  and 
endeavored  to  take  from  them  their  arms  after 
their  surrender,  the  commanding  officer's  for- 
bearance and  coolness  availed  nothing.  The 
prayers  of  the  medicine  man  and  his  assurance 
that  the  bullets  would  not  penetrate  their  ghost 
dance  shirts  prevailed,  and  although  two  pieces 
of  artillery  were  trained  upon  them  and  the  sol- 
diers who  surrounded  them  outnumbered  the 
Indian  warriors  three  or  four  times,  they  fell 
suddenly  upon  the  troops  at  a  signal  from  the 
medicine  man  with  savage  fury  and  often  con- 
tinued fighting  even  when  wounded  and  dying. 
The  soldiers  retaliated  with  terrible  results.  In- 
dian men,  women,  and  boys  engaged  in  the  fight, 
and  Indian  men,  women  and  boys  paid  the  pen- 
alty.    What  is  to  follow  no  one  knows. 

"Such  is  the  sad  story." 

When  these  words   of  Bishop   Hare's  were 

1  "When  one  of  the  women,  wounded  in  the  fight,  was  approached 
as  she  lay  in  the  Church  and  told  by  Miss  Goodale  she  must  let 
them  remove  her  ghost  dance  shirt  in  order  the  better  to  get  at 
her  wound,  she  replied,  '  Yes,  take  it  off.  They  told  me  a  bullet 
would  not  go  through.     Now,  I  don't  want  it  any  more.' " 


THE  MISSIONARY  TO  TWO  RACES     243 

written  there  was  no  foreseeing  that  the  "Mes- 
siah Craze"  was  virtually  the  final  flicker  of  the 
ancient  spirit  of  the  Sioux.  The  new  "way" — as 
the  Indians  so  generally  called  it — had  become 
their  way  to  an  extent  which  made  the  adaptation 
of  it  to  their  needs,  rather  than  its  introduction, 
the  prevailing  work  of  church  and  state.  This 
chapter  will  have  failed  of  its  purpose  if  the 
reader  has  not  felt  that  Bishop  Hare  made  an  all- 
important  contribution  to  such  a  result.  One 
who  observed  his  work  in  the  very  period  which 
has  been  under  consideration  bore  a  memorable 
testimony  to  its  value.  In  1887,  Mr.  J.  B. 
Harrison,  the  penetrating  author  of  Certain 
Dangerous  Tendencies  in  American  Life,  wrote 
in  his  Latest  Studies  on  Indian  Reservations: 

"I  know  of  no  man  who  has  accomplished  more 
for  the  civilization  of  the  Indians  of  Dakota,  or 
for  the  advancement  of  all  improving  and  civiliz- 
ing influences  in  the  country  adjacent  to  the 
reservations,  than  Bishop  Hare,  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church.  Some  religious  workers  on 
the  frontier  are  successful  by  means  of  mere 
i-ude  strength  or  physical  vigor.  They  influence 
men  all  the  more  because  of  the  coarseness  of 
taste  and  fibre  which  is  common  to  them  and  to 
many  of  the  people  among  whom  they  live.  But 
here  is  a  man  made  up  of  all  gentle  and  pure 
qualities;  at  home  in  'the  still  air  of  delightful 


244     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

studies';  who  would  be  a  leader  among  the  best 
anyivhere;  who  unites  to  a  soldier's  fearlessness 
and  invincible  devotion  a  spirituality  so  lofty 
and  tender  that  one  shrinks  from  characterizing 
it  while  he  is  still  in  the  flesh,  who  is  laying  the 
foundations  of  Christian  civiHzation  on  broad 
and  far-reaching  hnes  in  a  region  large  enough 
to  be  a  mighty  empire.  He  long  ago  saw  the 
need  and  opportunity  of  the  time,  and  answered 
to  its  call.  I  am  not  a  member  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church.  It  is  only  as  a  student  of 
civilization  that  I  have  \\Titten  of  any  of  the  mis- 
sionarj''  enterprises  among  the  Indians.  But  this 
man  ought  to  have  whatever  he  wants  of  means 
for  his  work,  with  remembrance  and  honor  from 
all  good  men." 


VIII 

IN   JAPAN   AND   CHINA 

1891-1892 

BEFORE  dealing  in  any  detail  with  the  cir- 
cumstances under  which  Bishop  Hare 
turned  from  South  Dakota  in  1891,  and  again 
in  1892,  for  brief  terms  of  service  as  a  Missionary 
Bishop  fii'st  in  Japan  and  then  in  Japan  and 
China,  an  incident  of  prophetic  suggestion  must 
be  related.  Soon  after  he  became  Bishop  of 
Niobrara  he  entered  the  mission  rooms  at  the 
Bible  House  in  New  York  one  day,  accompanied 
by  an  Indian  deacon  and  student  and  met  there, 
according  to  a  writer  in  The  Churchman,  "the 
English  missionary  Bishop  to  Japan  vA\h  a 
Japanese  student.  The  Indian  started  to  note 
a  fancied  or  real  resemblance  to  an  Indian 
friend,  and  the  young  Japanese  started  also  in 
surprised  admiration  of  the  Indian's  tall  sinewy 
form  and  his  swarthy  features,  thinking  that  he, 
too,  saw  some  resemblance  to  a  friend  in  the 
Orient.  Introductions  took  place,  and  these 
students  of  the  same  Gospel  seemed  at  once  to 

245 


240     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

come  very  near  each  other.  They  registered 
their  names  and  left  the  room,  but  the  young  In- 
dian asked  permission  to  return  a  moment,  and 
drew  from  his  finger  a  ring,  a  plain  circlet  of 
gold  that  he  wore,  and  slipped  it  on  the  finger 
of  his  new-found  brother.  The  young  Japanese 
did  the  same,  the  rings  being  thus  interchanged." 
No  occurrence  could  have  typified  more  fitly  the 
essential  oneness  of  all  missionary  work — espe- 
cially as  Bishop  Hare  was  destined  in  his  own 
person  to  represent  it. 

At  the  beginning  of  February,  1891,  the 
House  of  Bishops  met  in  special  session  in  New 
York  to  consider  the  needs  of  the  mission  to 
Japan.  Bishop  Williams,  in  charge  of  the  juris- 
diction of  Yedo  since  1874,  had  resigned  in  1889, 
and  the  work  was  suffering  for  lack  of  leader- 
ship. The  Church  of  England  had  its  own 
mission,  under  Bishop  Bickersteth,  in  Japan, 
and,  besides  the  administrative  needs,  there  were 
questions  about  the  division  of  authority  and 
labor  between  the  two  branches  of  the  Anglican 
communion.  It  was  decided,  therefore,  to  send 
out  a  member  of  the  House  of  Bishops  who 
should  act  virtually  as  an  ambassador  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  America,  and 
carry  to  the  mission  workers  such  assistance  as  a 
confidential,  sympathetic  and  authoritative  ad- 
viser could  bring.    Bishop  Hare's  rich  experience 


IN  JAPAN  AND  CHINA  247 

in  dealing  with  a  non-Christian  people  and  a 
national  government  designated  him  as  the  best 
man  for  this  delicate  mission.  Accordingly  the 
House  of  Bishops  on  February  4,  1891,  re- 
solved, "That  the  Bishop  of  South  Dakota  be 
requested  on  behalf  of  this  House  and  as  its  rep- 
resentative to  proceed  to  Japan  for  the  purpose, 
so  far  as  may  be  practicable,  of  administering 
the  affairs  of  that  jurisdiction  for  six  months  or 
a  year,  at  his  option,  unless  a  Bishop  shall  earlier 
be  elected  and  consecrated  for  the  Missionary 
Jurisdiction  of  Yedo."  The  Board  of  Missions 
promptly  pledged  its  cooperation  with  Bishop 
Hare  in  his  important  undertaking,  asked  him  to 
act  also  as  its  representative  in  Japan,  and 
promised  to  meet  all  expenses  to  be  incurred. 

Bishop  Hare  immediately  wrote  the  following 
letter: 

"New  York,  22  Bible  House, 

"February  4,  1891. 

"To  the  Clergy  and  Laity  of  the  Missionary 
District  of  South  Dakota. 

"Dear  Brethren:  Affairs  took  a  turn  to- 
day in  the  House  of  Bishops  to  me  most  unex- 
pected, and  so  likely  to  be  misunderstood,  that  I 
feel  I  should  communicate  at  once  with  my  dear 
fellow-helpers  in  South  Dakota. 

"As  is  well  known,  Japan  has  for  a  number  of 


g48     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

years  offered  a  field  for  missionary  enterprise  of 
extraordinary  promise,  and  ecclesiastical  affairs 
are  now  approaching  a  crisis  there,  which  will, 
in  all  probability,  make  this  an  epoch  in  the 
history  of  the  Church.  This  particular  field  of 
missionary  enterprise  has  occupied,  therefore,  not 
a  Httle  of  the  time  and  attention  of  the  House 
of  Bishops  for  a  number  of  years,  and  especially 
at  its  meeting  in  New  York  in  1889,  and  again 
at  Pittsburgh  in  1890.  Its  needs  were  the  occa- 
sion of  the  gathering  together  of  the  Bishops 
this  week. 

"The  conclusion  was  reached  by  the  Bishops 
that  one  of  their  own  number  should  be  sent  to 
Japan  without  delay,  to  act  there  in  their  behalf 
and  as  their  representative.  I  was  selected  to 
perform  this  duty.  The  obstacles  in  the  way  of 
my  acceptance  seemed  to  me  insurmountable,  in 
view  of  the  ordeal  through  which  the  South  Da- 
kota IVIission  has  been  lately  passing;  depressed 
in  the  Eastern  Deanery  by  the  results  of  an  ex- 
traordinaiy  drought,  and  strained  in  the  Nio- 
brara Deanery  bj^  an  outbreak  of  wild  Hf  e.  This 
exigency  the  Bishops  did  not  overlook,  but,  sur- 
veying the  whole  field  of  the  work  of  the  Church, 
they  were  of  opinion  that  I  should  give  a  num- 
ber of  months  to  Japan,  and  they  urged  their 
wish  upon  me  in  a  unanimous  vote  and  in  terms 
of   brotherly    affection    and   confidence,    which 


IN  JAPAN  AND  CHINA  249 

made  it  practically  impossible  for  me  to  refuse 
to  be  guided  by  their  will. 

"My  heart  is  with  you,  my  dear  brethren,  to 
live  and  die  with  you,  but,  all  things  considered, 
the  resolution  of  the  House  of  Bishops  came  to 
me  ahnost  as  if  it  had  begun  with  the  words 
adopted  by  a  council  of  the  Church  in  the  early 
days:  *It  seemed  good  to  the  Holy  Ghost  and 
to  us.'     I  could  not  but  obey  it. 

"I  expect  to  return  to  Sioux  Falls  about  the 
middle  of  February,  and  to  start  for  Japan  early 
in  March. 

"My  absence  will,  I  fear,  entail  inconvenience 
upon  you,  dear  brethren  of  the  clergj^  and  laity, 
but  you  will  bear  them  with  patience  and  cheer- 
fulness, and  make  up  for  my  lack  of  service  b}'' 
special  zeal  and  fidelity,  for  the  sake  of  the 
Church,  the  body  of  Christ,  in  which  all  the  mem- 
bers, whether  in  South  Dakota,  in  Japan,  or  else- 
where, are  one.  You  will  also  spare  me,  I  am 
sure,  in  these  ensuing  weeks  of  preparation  for 
my  new  duties,  all  demands  upon  my  time,  ex- 
cept those  which  are  most  urgent,  and  let  me  rest 
assured,  in  my  absence,  that  every  one  of  you, 
clerical  and  lay,  will,  in  his  own  vocation  and 
ministr}'-,  stand  fast  in  his  place,  so  that  I  may 
find  you  on  my  return  in  unbroken  rank,  and  the 
work  of  the  Lord  prospering  in  your  hands. 

"I  hope  to  communicate  to  you  later  the  pro- 


250     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

vision  which  will  be  made  for  the  management  of 
the  ecclesiastical  affairs  and  the  missionary  work 
of  the  Jurisdiction. 

"Your  affectionate  Friend  and  Bishop, 

"William  H.  Hare.' 

With  no  delay  he  set  about  preparing  himself 
for  what  he  had  to  do.  All  available  informa- 
tion bearing  on  his  task  was  sought.  Phillips 
Brooks  had  recently  visited  Japan,  and  to  him  he 
went  for  counsel.  In  a  characteristic  reply  to 
Bishop  Hare's  letter  he  made  his  plea  "for  some 
larger  Christian  union  and  cooperation  than  we 
are  able  to  reach  in  America."  "It  will  be  dread- 
ful," he  wrote,  "if  we  settle  down  there  to  the 
same  condition  of  things  which  we  have  here, 
making  close  association  with  the  English  mis- 
sionaries there  because  of  their  Episcopacy,  and 
keeping  aloof  from  the  great  free,  sensible  and 
effective  work  which  the  non-Episcopal  Ameri- 
cans have  been  doing  there  for  years.  It  is  with 
them  that  our  real  sympathies  belong.  .  .  . 
Now  is  the  time  and  that  is  the  place  to  see  what 
can  be  done  in  the  way  of  genuine  unity,  and  to 
show  what  all  the  abundant  talk  about  the  thing 
is  worth."  To  whatever  extent  Bishop  Hare 
may  have  sympathized  with  these  sentiments — ■ 
and  the  kinship  of  spirit  between  the  two  men  en- 
sured frank  speech  and  mutual  understanding 


IN  JAPAN  AND  CHINA  251 

— it  must  have  been  clear  to  them  both  that 
under  the  commission  from  the  House  of  Bishops 
the  visiting  Bishop  could  exercise  but  a  brief 
and  limited  authority.  Other  friends  offered 
other  suggestions,  and  on  March  3,  1891, 
Bishop  Hare  left  Sioux  Falls  for  his  long  jour- 
ney. 

From  the  "Bishop's  Record"  in  the  March 
number  of  The  Church  News  an  item  of  obser- 
vation on  the  "Overland  Flyer"  to  San  Fran- 
cisco may  be  taken:  "The  most  eventful  occasion 
was  the  half  hour  I  spent  promenading  the  plat- 
form at  Laramie  where  I  was  a  witness  of  a 
typical  mode  of  salutation  indulged  in  by  two 
friends  of  the  rougher  class.  One  espied  the 
other  from  the  platform  of  the  car  where  he  was 
standing,  and  exclaiming,  'Hello!'  moved  to- 
ward him  with  outstretched  hand  and  a  hearty, 
'You  devil,  how  are  you?'  to  which  the  other  with 
equally  courteous  phrase  replied,  'Damn  you, 
how  d'ye  do?'  And  so  they  stood  with  hands 
grasped  and  beaming  faces  wliich  told  of  genu- 
ine friendship.  Profanity  has  a  character  of  its 
own  on  the  lips  of  such  men — God  forgive  them 
— and  evidently  they  do  not  always  mean  what 
they  say.  And  I  suppose  that,  so  far  as  the  use 
of  language  is  concerned,  if  'Puss'  and  'Toad' 
may  be  terms  of  endearment  in  some  circles, 
'Devil'  may  be  an  expression  of  friendship  in 


252     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

another.  Indeed,  that  very  night  a  mother  in 
the  section  of  the  sleeping  car  next  to  me,  while 
preparing  her  little  daughter  of  two  years  old 
for  bed,  clasped  her  to  her  bosom  with  the  words, 
'You  wretched  rogue!'  and  laid  her  to  rest  say- 
ing 'Good-night,  sweetheart.'  " 

Arriving  at  San  Francisco  at  three  o'clock  on 
Sunday  afternoon,  he  found  himself  announced 
to  preach  at  Trinity  Church  in  the  evening,  and 
did  so — to  a  congregation  of  a  thousand  persons. 
"Well,"  he  wrote  in  his  "Record,"— "I  pleaded 
for  Missions  as  earnestly  as  a  very  tired  man 
could." 

His  progress  eastward  may  be  followed  in  a 
letter  from  the  ship: 

"North  Pacific  Ocean, 
"Belgic,  Oriental  &  Occidental  SS. 

"March  23,  1891. 
"Here  I  am  in  mid-ocean,  about  twenty-seven 
hundred  miles  from  San  Francisco  and  about 
twenty- four  hundred  from  Japan;  as  helpless 
and  hopeless,  should  anything  happen  to  this  lit- 
tle shell  that  floats  on  the  vast  heaving  deep  as 
one  of  the  sea-gulls  that  flies  in  our  wake  should 
it  break  one  of  its  wings. 

"But  I  set  sail  auspiciously.  Bishop  Nichols 
added  to  all  his  other  kindnesses  an  appointment 
of  a  quiet  celebration  of  the  Holy  Communion 


IN  JAPAN  AND  CHINA  253 

in  Grace  Church  the  day  I  left,  and  the  rain 
ceased  faUing  and  the  clouds  broke  soon  after. 
The  Bishop  with  two  of  the  clergy  'accompanied 
me  to  the  ship.'  I  bade  them  good-by  before 
the  vessel  swung  loose  from  the  dock  and  busied 
myself  in  my  stateroom,  finishing  letters  to  send 
ashore  by  the  pilot,  so  that  I  avoided  the  parting 
from  my  native  land;  and  when  I  went  on  deck 
a  fog  had  settled  down  and  shut  us  in. 

"The  ship  is  neat  and  clean  and  snugly  built, 
inspiring  confidence  and  also  a  certain  pride  in 
her  as  she  triumphantly  mounts  the  great  rolling 
waves  that  come  marching  with  a  menace  toward 
her,  or  gracefully  recovers  herself  from  a  more 
than  ordinarily  deep  careen  as  though  she  were 
conscious  of  her  power  and  was  amused  at  our 
alarm.  But  she  makes  slow  progress.  She  is 
loaded  down  almost  to  the  water's  edge,  300  tons 
of  sugar  for  Japan,  2,500  tons  of  flour  for  Hong 
Kong,  and  1,300  tons  of  coal  for  her  own  use, 
being  part  of  the  cargo.  We  have  had  head 
seas  and  the  wind  has  been  adversely  almost  all 
the  time,  and  she  makes  only  about  270  miles  a 
day.  Alas,  I  fear  we  shall  not  reach  Japan  in 
time  to  celebrate  Easter. 

"I  had  no  conception  what  a  lonely  waste  of 
waters  the  North  Pacific  Ocean  is.  We  have 
not  had  a  glimpse  of  land,  nor  sighted  any  craft 
of  any  kind  whatsoever,  nor  seen  fish  singly  nor 


254     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

in  shoals,  since  we  lost  sight  of  land  the  first  day, 
and  the  captain  tells  us  we  shall  fare  no  better 
till  we  approach  Japan. 

"There  are  but  nine  cabin  passengers  beside 
myself,  so  that  there  is  plenty  of  room.  These, 
with  the  steerage  passengers  (175  Chinese  and 
a  dozen  Japanese)  and  the  officers  and  men  of 
the  ship  constitute  its  living  freight.  The  cabin 
passengers  are  a  young  Methodist  minister,  and 
his  wife  from  Georgia,  who  is  going  out  as  a 
missionary  to  Japan;  a  gentleman  and  his  wife 
from  St.  Louis,  seeking  recreation;  a  Scotch 
laird,  one  Irish  and  one  English  gentleman, 
men  of  business  in  China  and  elsewhere ;  a  Japa- 
nese gentleman  who  is  returning  from  Paris 
where  he  has  been  in  mercantile  pursuits  some 
years;  and  last,  a  Chinaman  from  San  Fran- 
cisco, a  successful  man  of  business  who  has  eight 
or  nine  shops  there,  the  best  fed,  the  sleekest  and 
most  rotund,  the  most  jocund,  too,  of  the  com- 
pany, as  full  of  communicativeness  as  his  mod- 
erate command  of  'pidgin'  English  will  admit, 
and  evidently  well  content  with  himself,  his  busi- 
ness, and,  not  least,  his  wife,  whose  photograph 
he  produces  in  select  companies  and  displays  her 
loaded  with  costly  tokens  of  his  love,  appareled 
in  richly  embroidered  silks,  her  wrists  clasped 
with  several  bracelets,  one  pair  of  which  is  worth, 


IN  JAPAN  AND  CHINA  255 

he  says,  $300,  and  precious  stones  pendent  from 
her  ears.  Happy  wife,  one  thinks,  until  the 
fond  husband  adds,  'She  go  out  only  four  times 
a  year.  She  spend  no  money  except  on  herself 
and  for  herself/ 

"The  weather  has  been  moderately  good  thus 
far,  rain  and  clouds  and  clear  weather  having 
had  an  equal  share;  the  temperature  has  ranged 
from  60  to  70  degrees,  so  that  I  have  been  on 
deck  a  good  deal.  I  have  escaped  seasickness, 
have  been  well,  and  time  has  not  hung  heavily 
on  my  hands.  The  quiet  and  opportunity  to 
read  have  been  as  refreshing  as  they  are  to  me 
unusual. 

"I  am  writing  this  March  23,  Monday,  and 
am  just  waking  up  to  the  full  meaning  of  an 
odd  experience.  It  was  Saturday  when  I  lay 
down  to  sleep  last  night,  but  when  I  awoke  this 
morning,  instead  of  its  being  Sunday,  it  was 
Monday.  One  day  had  dropped  out  of  life. 
We  were  just  half-way  round  the  world  from 
Greenwich,  therefore,  on  reaching  the  180th  de- 
gree of  west  longitude  we  had  to  drop  a  day  in 
order  to  keep  time  with  the  rest  of  the  world. 
It  requires  quite  an  intellectual  effort  to  fit  this 
fact  in  with  one's  ordinary  modes  of  think- 
ing.    ,.     . 

"That  Sunday,  however,  might  not  be  utterly 


256     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

ignored,  the  captain  arranged  for  a  service  Sat- 
urday evening,  at  which,  as  on  the  previous  Sun- 
day, I  officiated. 

"That  word,  'pidgin',  which  I  just  used,  has 
a  curious  origin.  'Pidgin  EngHsh'  means  'busi- 
ness EngHsh',  or  Enghsh  such  as  is  used  in  trade, 
'pidgin'  being  the  nearest  approach  the  Chinese 
tongue  makes  toward  pronouncing  the  word 
business.  When  first  heard,  it  is  intensely  amus- 
ing, as  will  appear  from  the  samples  of  it  I  send 
herewith.  Let  me  premise  that  'man-man'  and 
'chow-chow'  in  the  first  stanza  mean  respectively, 
stop  and  eat,  and  that  in  the  second  stanza  'chop- 
chop'  means  immediately,  'maskee'  never  mind, 
and  'chop'  a  device. 

"LITTLE  JACK  HORNER  in  Pidgin  English. 

"Littee  Jack  Horner  man-man  one  corner. 
He  chow-chow  one  Chlisman  pie. 
He  puttee  he  thumb,  he  catchee  one  plum, 

'Hi  yah  !     Good  boy  b'long  my !'  " 

"EXCELSIOR,  in  Pidgin  English. 

"Nightee  time  begin  chop-chop, 
One  man  walkee,  he  no  can  stop, 
Maskee  snow,  maskee  ice. 
He  cally  flag  with  chop  so  nice. 
Top  side,  'Go  lah !'  " 

"Two  Chinamen  have  died  during  the  voyage. 
According  to  the  custom  on  which  their  friends 


IN  JAPAN  AND  CHINA  257 

strenuously  insist,  their  bodies  are  to  be  returned 
to  their  native  land,  not  consigned  to  the  deep 
as  they  would  have  been  if  they  were  the  bodies 
of  Europeans.  They  have  been  embalmed  and 
are  now  lying  in  large  coffins  of  a  special  Chi- 
nese make  strapped  fast  to  the  deck  near  the 
stern  of  the  ship,  a  perpetual  memento  mori, 

"We  call  tliis  desire  to  be  buried  in  their  own 
native  land  superstition,  and  perhaps  it  is,  but 
it  may  deserve  a  better  name.  Joseph's  com- 
mand, as  he  lay  dying  in  a  foreign  land,  was 
*Ye  shall  carry  up  my  bones  from  hence,'  and 
the  patriarchal  Jacob's  request  was,  'Bury  me 
with  my  father  in  the  cave  that  is  in  the  field  of 
Ephron  the  Hittite.  There  were  buried  Abra- 
ham, and  Sarah,  his  wife.  There  they  buried 
Isaac  and  his  wife.  And  there  they  buried 
Leah.'  Here,  as  in  other  things,  perhaps  all 
hearts  are  alike.  Indeed,  as  I  travel  and  see 
more  and  more  of  men,  this  unity  impresses  me 
more  profoundly.  We  have  a  motley  assort- 
ment of  humanity  aboard  this  ship,  American, 
English,  Scotch,  Irish,  Chinese,  Japanese,  a 
negro,  a  Taliitian  and  others,  but  as  I  watch 
them  in  their  movements,  when  seasick  and  when 
well,  when  basking  in  the  sun  or  when  huddhng 
together  to  get  out  of  the  rain,  or  scampering 
with  exclamations  to  escape  a  wave  that  breaks 
over  the  ship,  there  rises  in  my  mind  this  instinc- 


258     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

tive  comment,  reappearing  like  a  refrain,  'As  in 
water  face  answers  to  face,  so  the  heart  of  man 
to  man,'  and  the  prayer  will  force  its  passage 
through  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  its  accom- 
plishment which  the  intellect  marshals,  that  the 
one  heart  of  humanity  may  be  united  in  one 
great  adoring  love  of  its  common  Lord. 

"  'O  God,  who  hast  made  of  one  blood  all  na- 
tions of  men  for  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the 
earth,  and  didst  send  Thy  blessed  Son  to  preach 
peace  to  them  that  are  far  oiF  and  to  them  that 
are  nigh:  grant  that  all  Thy  j)eople  everywhere 
may  seek  after  Thee  and  find  Thee;  and  hasten, 
O  Lord,  the  fulfillment  of  Thy  promise  to  pour 
out  Thy  Spirit  upon  all  flesh:  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord.' 

"Easter  Day,  9  p.  m. 
"We  are  now  sailing  up  the  Gulf  of  Yeddo 
and  shall  drop  anchor  off  Yokohama  about  10 
p.  M.  and  not  go  ashore  till  morning." 

In  a  preaching  service  to  Japanese  within  two 
weeks  of  his  arrival  Bishop  Hare  put  to  the  test 
of  practical  use  the  thought  to  which  the  sight 
of  the  motley  assemblage  on  shipboard  had 
prompted  him.  In  a  letter  of  April  12,  he 
wrote: 

"I  began  my  address  to-night  somewhat  thus: 
"  'You  will  say,  perhaps,  as  you  see  me  rise. 


BISHOP  HARE  AND  HIS  JAPANESE  INTERPRETER 


IN  JAPAN  AND  CHINA  259 

"Who  is  tills  stranger?"  No,  I  am  not  a 
stranger.  I  have  traveled  the  world  over, 
among  white  people,  yellow  people,  red  people, 
black  people,  and  I  never  was  a  stranger  any- 
where ;  for  tears  have  trickled  down  these  cheeks 
and  they  were  salt,  and  I  find  all  the  world  over 
that  human  beings  weep  and  their  tears  are  salt. 
This  body  of  mine  is  full  of  blood,  and  the 
blood  is  red  and  warm.  Bad  news  has  come  to 
me  during  my  life,  and  my  heart  has  beaten 
quick,  and  I  have  felt  a  choking  at  my  throat. 
Has  it  ever  been  so  with  you,  my  friends ?  Tell 
me.  Ah,  I  see  the  answer  in  your  looks.  You 
have  your  troubles.  And  now  you  are  ready  to 
say,  'We  do  not  understand  your  language,  but 
we  do  understand  your  heart.  You  are  no 
stranger.     We  call  you  brother.' 

"I  felt  that  I  had  reached  them,  and  it  was 
easy  to  tell  of  the  grace  that  comes  by  Jesus 
Christ." 

By  such  insistences  upon  the  essential  unity  of 
human  nature  Bishop  Hare  had  brought  himself 
close  to  his  Indians,  and  now  in  Japan  the  same 
spirit  wrought  the  same  results.  Linking  his 
immediate  experiences  with  those  still  farther  in 
the  past,  a  striking  incident  may  be  recounted. 
When  he  was  General  Secretary  of  the  Foreign 
Missionary  Society  he  made  an  appeal  in  a  cer- 


260     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

tain  church  for  foreign  missions.  In  the  collec- 
tion that  followed  was  found  an  envelope  con- 
taining a  diamond  ring  and  a  note  saying  that 
the  owner  of  it  had  no  income,  but  wished  the 
ring  sold  and  the  proceeds  devoted  to  missions. 
jNIr.  Hare — as  he  was  then — felt  some  uncer- 
tainty about  the  best  course  to  pursue;  but 
friends  of  the  foreign  work  removed  it  bj?"  buy- 
ing the  ring,  and  having  it  set  in  one  of  the  ves- 
sels of  a  communion  service  purchased  with  the 
price  of  it.  This  communion  silver  the  Gen- 
eral Secretary  sent  to  the  mission  at  Osaka 
in  Japan,  and  when  at  this  mission  as  visiting 
Bishop  he  made  his  first  celebration  of  the  Holy 
Communion  in  Japan,  he  instantly  recognized 
the  very  service  which  he  had  bought  and  shipped 
eighteen  years  before.  To  the  official  as  to  the 
man  the  Japanese  Christians  might  well  have 
said:  "You  are  no  stranger.  We  call  you 
brother." 

It  was  of  course  chiefly  in  his  official  capacity 
that  he  was  to  make  himself  known  to  the  Japan- 
ese. Between  JNIarch  30,  when  he  landed,  and 
July  29,  when  he  sailed  for  the  United  States, 
he  "preached  sixty-seven  times,  celebrated  the 
Lord's  Supper  twenty-eight  times,  confirmed 
two  hundred  and  fifty-eight  persons  (of  whom 
seventeen  were  for  Bishop  Bickersteth),  or- 
dained five  deacons,  and  licensed  thirty-one  cate- 


IN  JAPAN  AND  CHINA  261 

chists."  Immediately  upon  landing  he  met 
Bishop  Bickersteth,  and  during  his  stay  had  fre- 
quent and  profitable  consultations  with  the  re- 
tired Bishop  Williams.  After  traveling  exten- 
sively through  the  country  and  studying  the 
whole  situation  he  drew  up  a  plan  for  the  di- 
vided administration  of  the  American  and  Eng- 
lish missionaries  of  his  own  communion,  to 
which  Bishop  Bickersteth  agreed.  As  he  had 
looked  upon  much  of  his  work  for  the  Indians  as 
merely  preliminary,  and  conducive  to  self-help, 
so  he  regarded  the  function  of  Americans  and 
Englishmen  in  Japan.  In  the  formal  report 
of  his  mission  he  drew  upon  the  agreement  be- 
tween himself  and  the  English  bishop:  "We 
regard  the  work  of  the  foreign  Bishops  as  pro- 
visional. The  whole  state  of  thought  and  feel- 
ing among  the  Japanese  forbids  the  introduc- 
tion into  Japan,  as  permanent  institutions,  of 
branches  of  either  the  English  or  the  American 
Church,  and  nothing  would  offend  the  national 
feehng  and  hinder  the  extension  of  the  Church 
more  than  the  giving  the  Japanese  just  cause 
for  suspecting  that  w^e  desire  or  intend  to  impose 
upon  them  a  permanent  foreign  episcopate. 

"Every  wise  principle  of  propagating  the 
Gospel  in  Japan  demands  that  our  work  should 
be  regarded  as  that  of  so  directing  the  missions 
of  the  American  and  Enghsh  Churches  that  a 


262     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

Japanese  independent  and  self -supporting 
church  shall  be  the  result.  Indeed  these 
churches  have  so  far  committed  themselves  to 
this  policy  that  a  Japanese  Church  with  its  own 
constitution  and  canons  has  been  in  existence  for 
some  years.  The  English  and  American  Bish- 
ops are  not  regarded  by  the  Japanese,  and 
should  not  be  regarded  by  us,  as  having  juris- 
diction over  dioceses  finally  delimited,  but  rather 
as  forerunners  in  the  Episcopate  of  Japanese 
Bishops  who  will  exercise  jurisdiction  over  such 
permanently  defined  dioceses  as  the  expansion  of 
the  Japanese  Church  may  in  future  demand." 

This  far-seeing  counsel  was  supplemented,  in 
Bishop  Hare's  confidential  report  to  the  Pre- 
siding Bishop,  by  a  concluding  paragraph  which 
immediately  followed  an  emphatic  plea  for  send- 
ing "one  of  more  than  ordinary  natural  endow- 
ments, of  large  acquirements  and  of  special 
gifts  of  peace,"  to  become  the  Episcopal  head 
of  the  Japanese  mission:  *'I  do  not  fear  that 
there  is  any  danger  that  such  a  messenger  of  the 
Church's  love  will  find  this  Episcopal  career 
prematurely  cut  short  bj^  the  rapid  development 
of  the  Japanese  Church  and  the  creation  of  a  na- 
tive Episcopate.  In  the  first  place,  the  Japan- 
ese are  now  looking  back  upon  the  former  hot 
haste  in  adopting  foreign  thoughts  and  customs 
with  a  feeling  of  wounded  pride  and  loss  of 


IN  JAPAN  AND  CHINA 

self-respect,  and  will  make  haste  slowly  in  the 
future.  In  the  second  place,  the  work  of  the 
foreign  bishops  will  be  that  of  gradually  divid- 
ing up  their  present  vast  jurisdiction  and  setting 
off  independent  Missionary  Districts  under  na- 
tive Bishops,  and  this  process  will  hardly  be  so 
far  completed  as  to  require  the  withdrawal  of  the 
foreign  bishops  from  Japan  within  a  genera- 
tion." 

Bishop  Hare  did  not  forget  the  hope  of  Phil- 
lips Brooks  that  something  might  be  done  in 
Japan  for  Church  unity.  According  to  his  re- 
port to  the  Presiding  Bishop,  he  introduced  the 
subject  at  a  gathering  of  the  clergy  of  both  the 
Enghsh  and  American  missions,  shortly  after 
his  arrival,  "and  pressed  it  as  one  of  the  matters 
which  lay  nearest  to  the  hearts  of  the  American 
Bishops."  But  "alas,"  he  said,  "denominational 
lines  are  almost  as  clearly  drawn  in  Japan  as  in 
America.  Each  Mission  reproduces  there  the 
mind  of  the  home  rehgious  body  which  supports 
it."  What  would  happen  should  all  foreign 
control  be  withdrawn,  he  could  not  foretell,  but, 
realizing  the  "enthusiasm,  generosity,  enterprise 
and  statesmanship"  exhibited  by  other  bodies, 
feared  that  the  result  could  not  be  "favorable  to 
the  claims  of  the  Anglican  Communion." 

His  own  belief  that  the  branch  of  the  Church 
which  he  represented  could  bring  to  a  people 


264,     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

schooled  in  tradition  and  order  what  would  suit 
them  best  was  unwavering.  This  belief,  and  the 
wise  encouragement  which  one  of  his  experience 
was  qualified  to  give,  he  carried  to  the  scattered 
w^orkers  in  missions,  schools,  hospitals  and  Di- 
vinity School.  On  May  29  the  clergy  and  laity 
of  the  Japanese  Church  held  a  convocation  in 
Trinity  Church,  Tokio,  and  heard  an  address 
from  Bishop  Hare.  The  following  passages 
from  it  will  speak  for  the  union  of  practical  wis- 
dom and  spiritual  stimulus  which  marked  liis 
work  in  Japan  as  well  as  at  home: 

"Let  us  not  deceive  ourselves.  There  are 
stubborn  facts  and  fundamental  principles  to 
be  encountered.  It  is  easy  to  express  fine  senti- 
ments. It  is  easy  to  spin  theories  of  coopera- 
tion. Yet,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  actual  life  is  a 
great  descent  from  the  realm  of  airy  ideas.  It 
is  made  up  of  incongruities,  and  uncongeniali- 
ties  and  inequalities — of  duties  to  be  done  as  well 
as  rights  to  be  enjoyed,  of  annoyances  to  be 
borne  as  well  as  privileges  to  be  exercised.  In- 
convenient facts  meet  us  everj^where.  Every 
plan  for  improvement  will  require  able  men  for 
its  execution,  and  monei/  for  its  support. 
Where  shall  we  find  them?  Manifestly  then 
we  must  compel  ourselves  to  turn  from  specula- 
tions which  have  cut  loose  from  things  as  they 
really  are  and  fit  ourselves  in  with  sober  ugly 


IN  JAPAN  AND  CHINA  265 

facts.  We  must  leave  theories  as  to  how  thmgs 
should  be  done  for  the  practical  question  how 
they  can  be  done.  We  must  descend  from  the 
heights  of  fancy  to  the  arena  of  real  everyday 
life.     .     .     . 

"The  question  must  arise  in  every  thoughtful 
Chi'istian  mind  whether  our  branch  of  the  Catho- 
lic Church  is  fitted  for  work  among  the  people 
of  Japan.  I  firmly  believe  that  it  is,  but  not 
the  Church  in  the  guise  in  which,  as  it  seems  to 
me,  some  of  her  converts  are  disposed  to  present 
her,  ashamed  to  lift  her  head  and  boldly  assert 
claims;  robbed  of  her  Church  seasons,  despoiled 
of  her  beautiful  garments,  reduced  from  her 
supernatural  origin  to  a  thing  of  man's  device, 
her  ministers  regarded  as  mere  teachers  and  no 
longer  as  'ministers  of  Christ  and  stewards  of 
the  mysteries  of  God';  her  sacraments  degraded 
to  mere  signs.  Such  a  Church  will  give  very 
little  offense  in  any  quarter,  I  am  aware;  and 
veiy  little  blessing  too.  A  pohcy  which  sur- 
renders everything  can  end  only  in  ignominy. 
Respect  was  never  secured  by  servility,  nor  a 
battle  ever  won  by  cowardice. 

"We  are  bound  by  a  sacred  tie  to  all  who  name 
the  name  of  Christ,  both  theirs  and  ours,  and 
nothing  can  be  more  contrarj^  to  our  religion 
nor  more  inexpedient  practically  than  envyings 
and  disputes  among  Christian  people.     Let  us 


266     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

bear  with  and  love  each  other.  But  the  Episco- 
pal Church  has  its  distinct  calling  and  we  must 
have  a  right  self-confidence.  We  should  give 
liberty  to  all  and  should  have  no  hesitation  in 
claiming  it  for  ourselves.  Influences  from  the 
ultra-Protestant  world,  which  in  some  quarters 
in  Japan  have  perhaps  overborne  us  in  the  past, 
should  be  resisted  and  we  should  boldly,  though 
generously,  hold  aloft  apostolic  faith  and  apos- 
tohc  order,  bearing  the  double  witness  against 
extremes  on  both  sides  of  us  which  has  been 
historically  our  calling. 

"If  we  be  regarded  as  having  come  here  with 
other  religious  bodies  that  each  may  make  its 
contribution  to  a  new  religion  and  Church  for 
Japan,  why  should  we  present  our  special  con- 
tribution so  highly  diluted  as  some  would  make 
it?  And  if  we  have  come  on  a  nobler  errand, 
hoping  that  our  branch  of  the  Church,  rich  in 
apostolic  faith  and  order,  yet  capable  of  adjust- 
ment in  its  current  opinions  and  in  its  admin- 
istration to  the  needs  of  difTerent  times  and 
places,  may  prove  the  source  from  which  the  peo- 
ple of  this  land  shall  eventually  derive  their 
permanent  Church  life  and  the  type  according 
to  whose  essential  form  they  will  develop  it,  then 
w^e  should  present  our  Church,  not  despoiled, 
nor  deformed,  nor  halting,  nor  uncertain,  but 


IN  JAPAN  AND  CHINA  267 

in  the  glory  of  her  holy  confidence  and  her 
strength. 

"It  is  one  thing  surely  to  ask  a  fair  chance  to 
present  our  Church  as  in  her  fullness  she  is,  and 
quite  another  thing  to  try  to  impose  upon  all  the 
adoption  of  all  her  minor  characteristics.  One 
may  advocate  the  former  course  and  utterly  dis- 
approve of  the  latter. 

"Let  us  never  in  the  midst  of  the  business  of 
the  Church  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  there  is 
such  a  mistake  as  that  of  being  very  busy  with 
the  affairs  of  the  Kingdom  of  heaven  and  yet 
of  possessing  very  little  personal  knowledge  of 
the  King;  nor  let  us  forget  in  trying  to  fit  our 
work  in  with  the  conditions  in  which  we  find  our- 
selves that  the  supreme  need  of  men  everywhere, 
whatever  may  be  their  superficial  desires,  is  just 
that  need  which  certain  Greeks  expressed,  as  we 
are  told  in  St.  John's  Gospel,  'Sir,  we  would  see 
Jesus.'  I  feel  sure  that  the  highest  conviction 
of  us  all  is,  however  much  passing  things  may 
for  a  time  divert  us,  that  the  supreme  desire  and 
effort  of  a  Cliristian  should  be  to  fix  his  own  full 
gaze,  and  to  fix  the  gaze  of  others,  upon  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God  made  man. 

*'But  it  is  the  real  essential  Christ  that  the 
Japanese  need  to  know.  Christ,  not  as  though 
the  nature  which  He  assumed  were  merely  an 


268     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

Oriental  or  merely  an  Occidental  nature,  but  a 
human  nature.  Christ  as  uniting  in  Himself 
the  common  properties  of  humanity;  Christ, 
not  a  son  of  a  man,  but  the  Son  of  man.  And 
Christ  not  as  Englishmen  or  Americans  find 
that  they  can  appropriate  Him,  but  Christ  as  the 
Japanese  mind  can  appropriate  Him — Christ 
seen  by  the  Japanese  from  their  own  point  of 
view:  but  yet  one  and  the  same  Christ  for  all; 
Christ  as  the  Catholic  Church  presents  Him; 
Christ,  'The  brightness  of  God's  glory,  and  the 
express  image  of  His  person' ;  Christ  'manifested 
in  the  flesh,'  and  'obedient  unto  death,'  Christ 
'raised  up  from  the  dead  by  the  glory  of  the 
Father';  Christ  'set  at  His  right  hand  as  the 
Head  over  all  things  to  the  Church,  which  is 
His  body';  and  Christ  in  the  Church  and  by 
means  of  the  Church  filling  the  earth  with  His 
gifts  of  grace." 

Sailing  from  Yokohama  on  July  29,  Bishop 
Hare  reached  South  Dakota  in  time  to  take  part 
in  the  Convocation  of  seventeen  hundred  Chris- 
tian Indians  on  Rosebud  Reserve,  begimiing 
August  29,  1891.  For  a  few  months  he  took 
up  the  work  of  his  own  mission  with  vigor.  But 
his  work  in  Japan  was  not  yet  fully  accom- 
plished, and  at  the  end  of  the  year  he  issued  the 
following  letter: 


IN  JAPAN  AND  CHINA  269 

"Sioux  Falls,  South  Dakota, 

"December  30,  1891. 

"To  the  Clergy  and  Laity  of  The  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  in  South  Dakota. 

"My  Dear  Brethben  :  It  has  become  again 
my  duty  to  make  a  visit  to  Japan.  That  I 
should  do  so  has  all  along  been  the  wish  of  the 
members  of  our  Mission  there,  and  it  has  been 
urged  upon  me  by  the  Presiding  Bishop  and 
the  Board  of  Managers  of  our  Missionary  So- 
ciety. 

"A  short  visit  to  the  brethren  in  China  whom 
death  has  recently  bereft  of  their  Bishop  is  in- 
cluded in  the  programme. 

"It  is  with  great  difficultj'-  that  I  can  under- 
take this  duty,  and  I  have  approached  it  with 
much  reluctance,  but  the  reflection  that  those 
whom  I  esteem  think  I  can  be  of  service,  helps 
me  to  its  performance  and  I  need  now  only  your 
sympathy  and  prayers  on  my  way  and  in  my 
work  to  enable  me  to  depart  with  a  cheerful 
spirit. 

"I  have  so  arranged  my  movements  that  I 
shall  be  able,  by  God's  blessing,  to  accomplish 
with  expedition  the  work  which  most  needs  to 
be  done.  I  expect  to  be  absent  but  a  little  over 
three  months.  I  purpose  leaving  Sioux  Falls 
the  evening  of  January  8,  and  to  sail  from  Van- 


270     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

couver  on  the  S.S.  Empress  of  India,  January 
13. 

"The  steamer  stops  at  Yokohama,  Japan, 
from  twelve  to  twenty-four  hours,  and  during 
that  time  I  shall  have  opportunity  to  confer  with 
the  authorities  of  the  Japanese  Mission  who  will 
come  to  Yokohama  to  meet  me  and  arrange  for 
my  work  in  Japan  on  my  return.  I  expect  to 
proceed  then  on  the  same  steamer  to  Shanghai, 
Cliina,  and  spend  two  or  three  weeks  among  the 
Mission  Stations  in  China.  I  shall  then  accord- 
ing to  my  plan  retrace  my  steps  to  Japan  and 
spend  a  month  in  that  land,  and  hope  to  be  back 
in  time  to  celebrate  Easter  (April  17),  in  South 
Dakota. 

"The  Standing  Committee  will  be  the  Ecclesi- 
astical Authority  during  my  absence  and  I  will 
ask  you  to  consider  the  arrangement  made  for 
the  current  business  of  the  Mission  during  my 
previous  absence  as  being  now  again  in  opera- 
tion. Your  faithful  friend, 

"William  H.  Haee, 
"Missionary  Bishop." 

These  plans,  modified  by  necessity  in  some  of 
their  details,  were  essentially  carried  out.  The 
letter  does  not  say  that  the  serious  illnesses  of 
his  father  and  father-in-law,  each  nearly  eighty- 
four  years  old,  rendered  his  leaving  America  es- 


IN  JAPAN  AND  CHINA  rtl 

pecially  difficult  at  this  time.  While  still  uncer- 
tain of  the  outcome  of  his  father's  illness  he 
wrote  to  his  sister  ]\Iaiy  from  Japan:  "I  can 
remember  nothing  concerning  him  that  is  incon- 
sistent with  the  highest  integrity,  the  keenest 
sense  of  honor,  the  most  controlling  faith  in  God 
and  in  His  dear  Son.  Whether  he  wake  or 
sleep,  therefore,  he  lives  as  a  present  power." 
During  Bishop  Hare's  absence  his  father  died. 
As  the  absence  was  briefer  than  that  of  the  year 
before,  and  as  the  work  to  be  done  was  chiefly 
the  completion  of  things  left  unfinished,  the  pres- 
ent record  may  also  be  briefer.  A  letter  from 
the  outward  bound  ship  is  to  be  preserved: 

"SS.  Empress  of  India, 

"Januarj^  25,  1892. 

"It  is  a  wild  and  stormy  morning  and  cold  as 
well.  The  sea  runs  high  and  approaches  the 
vessel  in  formidable  waves.  They  heave  her, 
roll  her,  lash  her,  deluge  her  by  turns.  We  go 
to  and  fro  and  stagger  like  a  drunken  man.  As 
the  sea  breaks  over  the  vessel  it  freezes  and  the 
whole  fore  part  of  the  ship  is  covered,  rigging, 
forecastle  and  forward  saloon,  with  a  coating  of 
ice  from  two  to  four  inches  thick. 

"I  will  try  my  hand,  however,  at  the  com- 
mencement, at  least,  of  a  letter,  hoping  to  finish 
as  we  near  Yokohama. 


272     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

"The  weather  has  been  bleak  and  dreary  ever 
since  ^ye  left  port  and  we  have  seen  but  little 
sunshine.  I  doubt  whether  one  ever  does  up  in 
these  high  northern  latitudes.  Day  before  yes- 
terday we  ran  so  near  the  Aleutian  Isles  that  we 
saw  several  of  them  like  vast  masses  of  snow 
upon  the  deep;  but  our  little  world  aboard  ship 
is,  on  the  whole,  a  cheery  scene.  The  vessel  is 
a  noble  one  and  meets  the  heavy  seas  as  if  she 
felt  she  was  equal  to  any  emergency.  She  is 
well  lighted  and  airy  and  is,  in  all  her  appoint- 
ments, one  of  the  most  satisfactory^  I  ever  sailed 
on.  There  is  an  abundance  of  room,  too,  for 
there  are  but  twenty-odd  saloon  passengers  and 
the  ship  has  accommodations  for  over  a  hundred. 
I  have  a  state-room  all  to  myself  in  consequence, 
a  comfort  highly  appreciated. 

"We  have  met  with  no  misadventure  except 
that  the  second  day  out  a  saloon  passenger,  a 
lone  man  whom  none  of  the  other  passengers 
knew,  and  who  must  have  taken  to  his  berth  soon 
after  coming  aboard,  entered  on  the  list  as  Mr. 
E.  E.  Lapham,  of  Boston,  died.  This  event  did 
not  make  the  impression  which  would  have  re- 
sulted had  we  been  companions  on  shipboard; 
but  it  was  an  ominous  commencement  to  our  voy- 
age. His  body  was  consigned  to  the  deep.  I 
officiated  at  his  funeral.  The  body  which  had 
been  sewed  up  in  canvas  and  decently  covered  by 


IN  JAPAN  AND  CHINA  273 

a  flag  was  brought  to  the  port  side  of  the  vessel, 
laid  upon  a  smooth  bier  made  of  a  broad  flat 
surface  of  board,  one  end  of  which  was  sufl"ered 
to  rest  upon  the  gunwale  of  the  ship.  As  I  ut- 
tered the  words,  'We  therefore  commit  his  body 
to  the  deep,'  the  Captain,  who  was  standing  near, 
said  quietly,  'Heave':  the  bearers  raised  the  bier 
slightly  at  the  nearer  end,  the  body  slid  from  be- 
neath the  flag  ofl"  into  the  sea;  the  ship,  which 
had  been  slowed  up  somewhat,  resumed  her  usual 
speed, — and  our  httle  world  moved  on.  So  the 
great  world  will  one  day  or  other  pass  on  and 
leave  us  all,  only,  unlike  our  ship,  it  will,  per- 
haps hardly  'slow  up'  a  little. 

"January  26,  9  p.  m. 
"We  have  come  within  sight  of  Japan  this 
morning,  and  since  we  ran  into  the  Japan  cur- 
rent— a  warm  stream  which  runs  up  along  the 
coast  of  Japan  very  much  as  the  Gulf  Stream 
flows  along  our  Atlantic  coast — the  weather  has 
moderated  and  become  quite  mild.  We  are 
promised  that  we  shall  anchor  in  Yokohama  har- 
bor early  to-morrow. 

"January  27th. 
"This  morning  dawned  bright  and  pleasant 
and  everything  was  auspicious  until  a  fog  set- 
tled down  upon  us.     The  fog  whistle  began  to 
blow  and  the  speed  of  the  vessel  was  slackened 


S74j     life  and  labors  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

somewhat,  when  suddenly  the  fog  lifted  a  little, 
there  was  a  shout,  and  we  found  ourselves  close 
to  a  rocky  coast  and  the  sea  breaking  over  the 
sharp  crests  of  outlying  rocks.  One  rock  along- 
side was  within  twenty-five  or  thirty  feet  of  us. 
I  could  easily  have  thrown  an  apple  on  to  it, 
while  to  the  left,  and  a  little  ahead  lay  even 
more  formidable  rocks.  In  a  few  minutes  we 
should  have  been  crashing  upon  them  had  not  the 
fog  lifted.  The  engines  were  immediately  re- 
versed, the  ship's  advance  was  stayed,  and  pres- 
ently we  felt  her,  to  our  infinite  relief,  slowly 
gliding  backward." 

The  stay  in  Japan  was  extended  until  the  first 
of  March,  when  Bishop  Hare  set  sail  from 
Japan.  From  letters  to  his  sister  Mary  and  Dr. 
Langford,  Secretaiy  of  the  Board  of  Missions, 
it  appears  that  he  reached  Shanghai,  March  4, 
spent  several  days  there  visiting  stations, 
churches  and  institutions,  and  on  jNIarch  7  took 
steamer  for  Hankow,  six  hundred  miles  up  the 
Yangtse  River.  The  reports  of  what  he  saw  and 
did  in  China  have  to  do  so  much  more  with  im- 
mediate details  than  with  matters  of  permanent 
interest  that  they  may  be  passed  over.  On 
March  18  he  took  steamer  at  Shanghai  back  to 
Japan  and  March  26-29  again  met  the  clergy 
and  laity  of  the  Japanese  mission  in  Convocation 


IN  JAPAN  AND  CHINA  275 

at  Trinity  Church,  Tokio.  A  single  passage 
from  his  address  to  them — which  in  general  was 
more  a  report  than  a  sermon — is  all  that  need  be 
quoted : 

"I  would  urge  upon  all  who  are  called  upon 
in  any  capacitj^  to  teach  religion  to  the  people, 
that  they  keep  carefully  to  those  salient  points 
in  the  broad  lines  of  Christian  truths  of  which 
it  may  be  said  that  they  are  Catholic,  that  they 
have  been  held  'always,  everywhere  and  by  all.' 
We  are  here  not  of  our  own  motion  but  of  the 
Church's  appointment,  and  we  are  commissioned 
to  teach,  not  our  own  peculiar  views  of  the  things 
to  be  beheved,  and  the  things  to  be  done,  but 
what  the  Church  teaches.  This  body  of  truth 
is  presented  to  us  in  the  Creed,  the  Lord's 
Prayer  and  the  Ten  Commandments,  and  in  the 
striking  summaries  and  paraphrases  of  them 
which  our  short  Catechism  contains.  They  con- 
tain truths  so  compact  and  terse  in  statement, 
that,  as  the  intelhgent  teacher,  familiar  with  the 
Scriptures,  dwells  on  them,  texts  and  incidents, 
— impressive,  pathetic,  tender, — from  the  His- 
torical Books,  the  Prophets,  the  Psalms,  Gospels, 
Epistles,  rise  up  in  the  memory  and  leap  forward 
ready  to  expand,  illustrate  and  enforce  them,  I 
fear  these  treasures  are  not  adequately  appre- 
ciated. Religious  emotions  are  of  high  value, 
but  they  rise  and  fall.     They  are  not  perennial. 


276     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

Religious  opinions  rise  up  and  flourish  in  each 
age,  in  individuals  and  little  coteries,  and  are  like 
the  passing  highly-colored  cloud.  They  attract 
attention  and  pass  away.  But  the  great  truths 
taught  in  the  formulas  just  referred  to  are  not 
dependent  upon  emotion.  They  are  not  matters 
of  opinion.  They  are  seed  truth.  They  are 
capable  of  perpetual  germination.  Once  lodged 
in  the  mind,  they  'spring  and  grow  up  and  bring 
forth  fruit,  we  know  not  how,'  even  though  they 
be  long  inactive  and  apparently  dead,  and  from 
their  renewed  life,  holy  emotions  and  pious 
opinions  and  right  living  result  almost  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course." 

On  March  31  he  sailed  for  home  on  the 
steamer  China,  and,  to  his  great  disappointment 
reached  Sioux  Falls  just  too  late  for  the  celebra- 
tion of  Easter.  But  upon  his  two  visits  to  the 
Orient  he  must  have  looked  back  with  thankful- 
ness for  the  opportunities  they  had  brought  to 
him.  It  was  left  for  others  to  sum  up  the  value 
of  his  service.  In  1897  a  Japanese  correspond- 
ent of  The  Church  Standard  wrote  from  St. 
Paul's  College,  Tokio:  "The  influence  of 
Bishop  Hare's  visit  to  Japan  is  still  felt  here. 
Every  native  clergyman  whom  I  meet  speaks  of 
him  and  admires  him  highly.  One  denomina- 
tional minister  told  me  that  Japan  had  had  many 


IN  JAPAN  AND  CHINA  277 

American  commissioners,  representing  different 
Christian  bodies  at  home,  to  investigate  the  con- 
dition of  missionary  work  and  give  some  good 
opinions  for  its  improvement  if  needed,  but  that 
none  of  them  did  it  so  well  and  so  decidedly  as 
Bishop  Hare,  from  the  American  Episcopal 
Church.  His  testimony  is  true."  In  an  un- 
published letter.  Bishop  Tuttle,  dwelling  es- 
pecially upon  the  soldierly  qualities  of  Bishop 
Hare,  has  written:  "  The  Church  was  baffled 
and  crippled  in  directing  her  important  work  in 
the  Far  East.  Looking  around  she  asked,  'Who 
will  deliver  me  of  the  weight  of  this  trouble?' 
She  looked  at  Hare,  sorrowful  in  liis  loneliness 
and  his  homelessness,  harassed  with  border  per- 
plexities and  burdened  with  race  hatreds,  and  she 
asked  him  to  go  and  set  things  straight.  The 
soldier  went,  not  once  but  twice,  and  then  re- 
turned to  his  own  work  and  to  his  own  flock 
in  quiet  simplicity  and  godly  sincerity." 

In  1893,  the  year  following  Bishop  Hare's 
second  visit  to  the  East,  Bishops  McKim  and 
Graves  were  chosen  respectively  to  direct  the 
missions  of  Japan  and  China.  But  the  history 
of  these  missions  would  be  incomplete  without  a 
record  of  the  service  of  him  who  had  rejoiced  in 
the  preceding  decade  in  ceasing  to  be  a  mission- 
ary to  races  and  becoming  a  missionary  to  men. 


IX 

FEUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE 

1891-1908 

THE  preceding  pages  have  been  devoted 
chiefly  to  the  methods  by  which  Bishop 
Hare  did  his  work  for  Indians  and  others,  to 
typical  experiences,  to  illustrations  of  spirit  and 
character.  It  is  time  to  take  account  of  results. 
These  may  be  divided  into  two  broad  classes — 
the  outward  things,  or  those  which  happened, 
and  the  inward,  or  those  which  expressed  them- 
selves in  ripened  thought  and  expression. 

Of  the  things  which  happened,  the  change  in 
the  general  condition  of  the  Indians  was  the 
most  important.  The  increase  of  government 
schools,  the  existence  of  such  institutions  as 
Hampton  and  Carlisle,  the  work  of  the  schools 
and  missions  of  Protestant  bodies  and  of  the 
'Roman  Catholic  Church,  all  these  influences 
joined  their  weight  to  those  directed  by  Bishop 
Hare  for  the  betterment  of  the  race.  From  the 
first  he  had  raised  his  voice  against  the  reserva- 
tion system  as  a  permanent  arrangement.     In 

278 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  279 

his  seventeenth  annual  report  (1889) — the  year 
in  which  a  special  statute,  following  the  Dawes 
Allotment  Act  of  February,  1887,  prepared  the 
way  for  the  opening  of  about  11,000,000  acres 
to  white  settlers — he  announced  as  "an  achieve- 
ment of  incalculable  value"  the  completion  of 
the  plan  to  break  up  the  Great  Sioux  Reserva- 
tion into  seven  smaller  reservations.  "Time  will 
show,"  he  wrote,  "whether  the  world  or  the 
Church  will  be  the  more  on  the  alert  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  occasion.  The  Indian's  state  of 
mind,  meanwhile,  is  one  of  uncertainty  and  al- 
most consternation;  like  that  of  men  on  a  vast 
ice-floe  which  is  about  to  break  up  into  smaller 
cakes  under  the  action  of  the  wind.  God  give 
grace  to  me  and  the  noble  men  and  women 
associated  with  me  to  make  us  equal  to  this 
great  emergency."  In  his  report  for  the  next 
year  he  chronicled  the  accomplishment  of  the 
plan,  and  the  opening  of  the  land  between  the 
reservations:  "a  consummation  which  most  of 
the  friends  of  the  Indians  desired."  The  prep- 
aration of  the  Indians  for  the  next  step,  when 
"the  remainder  of  the  country  can  be  sold  to 
white  settlers,  and  the  two  races  thus  be  inter- 
mingled" is  still  in  progress. 

A  change  in  the  policy  of  the  Government  to- 
wards mission  boarding-schools  seemed  at  one 
time  destined  to  impair  seriously  the  fruitful- 


S80     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

ness  of  one  of  the  means  for  benefiting  the  In- 
dians upon  which  Bishop  Hare  placed  most  re- 
liance.    In  August  of  1901  he  received  notice 
that  a  new  interpretation  was  to  be  put  upon  a 
previous  decision  of  Congress  that  it  was  "the 
settled  policy  of  the  Government  to  hereafter 
make  no  appropriations  whatever  for  education 
in  sectarian  schools":  henceforth  this  was  taken 
to  mean  that  any  Indian  child  attending  a  mis- 
sion boarding  school  should  ipso  facto  forfeit  its 
rights  to  the  rations  issued  to  its  tribe.     The 
schools  under  Bishop  Hare  were  about  to  open, 
and  all  arrangements  for  the  j^ear  had  been  made. 
There  was  nothing  for  him  to  do  but  to  raise 
sufficient  funds  to  make  good  the  loss  occasioned 
by  the  withdrawal  of  the  rations.     This  he  did 
for  one  year,  and  subsequently  sold,  at  an  ap- 
palling sacrifice,  two  of  his  school  establishments 
■ — St.    Paul's,    at    Yankton    Agency,    and    St. 
John's,  at  Cheyenne  Agency.     But  on  the  two 
which     remained — St.     Mary's,     at     Rosebud 
Agency,  and  St.  Elizabeth's,  at  Standing  Rock 
Agency — he  was  enabled  to  concentrate  more  of 
thought    and   zeal.     Whatever    discouragement 
lay  in  the  fact  that  many  Roman  Catholic  schools 
contrived  to  overcome  the  conmion  handicap  by 
drawing  upon  tribal  funds,  there  was  surely  a 
countervailing  pleasure  in  the  knowledge  that 
the  cause  of  Indian  education,  in  wliich  he  was 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  281 

so  effective  a  pioneer,  had  made  since  1873  ex- 
traordinary progress  due  in  considerable  measure 
to  his  hand  in  it. 

As  he  was  fundamentally  a  missionary  the 
progress  of  education  for  liis  Indians  went  hand 
in  hand  with  progress  in  Christianity.  jMere 
statistics  of  growth  convey  but  an  external  im- 
pression of  the  advance,  but  at  least  they  are 
significant.  At  the  time  of  his  death  in  1909  it 
was  reckoned  that  out  of  about  twenty  thousand 
Indians  in  South  Dakota,  ten  thousand  were 
baptized  members  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  He 
had  confirmed  in  all  about  seven  thousand  In- 
dians. In  Ms  annual  report  for  1907  he  pre- 
sented a  summary  of  figures  for  the  past  twenty 
years  which  told  a  remarkable  story.  In  that 
time  his  Indian  communicants  had  increased  from 
936  to  3,782 — the  corresponding  numbers  of 
white  communicants  being  692  and  2,423.  A 
still  more  striking  contrast  is  found  in  the  con- 
tributions made  in  1887  and  1907.  At  the  earlier 
date  the  whites  gave  approximately  $10,500,  at  the 
later  $30,000.  In  the  same  years  the  Indians' 
annual  contributions  to  the  work  of  the  Church, 
both  in  South  Dakota  and  in  other  regions,  grew 
from  about  $1,500  to  about  $9,500.  The  duty 
and  privilege  of  giving,  as  an  element  in  civilized 
existence,  was  one  which  he  constantly  urged — 
and  obviously  to  good  purpose.     Of  the  results 


S82     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

of  his  Indian  work  in  general  he  said  in  the  last 
of  the  Convocation  Addresses  (1908):  "The 
Indian  work  will  probably  be  less  romantic  and 
eventful  in  the  future,  but  not  less  important  nor 
less  difficult.  The  first  work  among  them  was 
quarrying.  To-day  we  stand  and  say  to  the 
people,  'Look  unto  the  rock  whence  you  were 
hewn  and  unto  the  hole  of  the  pit  whence  you 
were  digged.'  For  the  future,  the  clergy  need 
to  be  builders,  men  who  can  so  carve,  and  so 
place  these  rough  hewn  stones  that  they  will  be- 
come a  holy  temple,  a  habitation  of  God  through 
the  Spirit." 

The  Indian  Convocation,  to  which  there  have 
been  occasional  allusions  in  previous  chapters, 
must  be  regarded  separately  as  an  institution 
bringing  memorable  testimony  year  by  year  to 
the  changes  which  Bishop  Hare  and  his  fellow- 
laborers  wrought  in  the  condition  of  the  Indians. 
This  Convocation  of  the  Niobrara  Deanery  is  an 
annual  meeting  of  the  Indians  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Mission.  Before  the  eighties  were 
passed  it  had  begun  to  hold  an  important  place 
in  the  religious  and  social  life  of  the  Indians. 
Bringing  together  first  a  few  hundred  Indians 
of  various  Sioux  tribes,  it  now  assembles  every 
year  on  one  or  another  of  the  reservations  three 
thousand  or  more  Indians,  who  travel  over  the 
prairies  from  all  parts  of  South  Dakota  and 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  283 

camp  together  for  several  days  given  up  to  re- 
ligious meetings  and  friendly  intercourse.  Sim- 
ilar gatherings  are  held  by  other  missions  than 
those  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  but  the  meetings 
of  the  Niobrara  Convocation  are  so  intimately 
associated  with  Bishop  Hare  that  some  definite 
impression  of  them  must  be  given.  They  have 
been  described  by  many  pens,  clerical  and  lay. 
A  Yankton  newspaper  described  the  convocation 
of  190o  at  White  Swan  on  the  Yankton  Reser- 
vation, one  of  the  last  of  these  meetings  at  which 
Bishop  Hare  was  present.  The  following  pas- 
sages from  the  article  will  speak  for  the  pic- 
turesqueness  and  significance  of  the  strange  gath- 
erings : 

"Many  things  conspired  to  make  of  this  year's 
convocation  a  great  success.  The  attendance 
was  beyond  expectation,  the  weather  was  ideal, 
the  site  was  a  magnificent  one,  and  that  nothing 
might  be  omitted,  a  beautiful  Dakota  moonlight 
lit  up  the  scene  at  night,  giving  a  weird  at- 
tractiveness to  the  great  camp  that  not  even  sun- 
light could  impart.  The  Yankton  party  went 
by  rail  to  Lake  Andes,  which  place  was  reached 
after  the  supper  hour.  Here  teams  were  met, 
with  Yankton  Indian  drivers,  and  the  drive  of 
seven  miles  was  made  by  moonlight  over  the 
reserve  to  the  river  and  camp.  As  the  JNlissouri 
came  in  sight  old  abandoned  Fort  Randall  was 


284,     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

pointed  out,  the  partially  ruined  church  showing 
up  white  in  the  silvery  light,  across  the  river  and 
a  couple  of  miles  or  so  below  the  camp.  A 
beacon  light  from  the  mission  sent  out  a  welcome 
to  the  late  arrivals  and  as  the  outposts  were 
reached  an  aged  Indian  approached  wdth  the 
brief  but  cordial  greeting  of  his  people,  'How.' 
Here  the  team  was  dismissed  and  then  for  the 
first  time  it  dawned  on  the  visitors  that  they  were 
absolutely  alone  at  night  amidst  thousands  of 
Indians,  who  did  not  expect  them,  or  even  know 
them. 

"The  thought  w^eighed  but  lightly  on  the  trav- 
elers, however,  who  were  lost  in  admiration  of 
the  scene  presented  to  them  as  the  ascent  of  a 
small  but  steep  hill  revealed  a  long  row  of  tents 
stretching  away  west  until  a  hill  obscured  the 
end.  Indians  were  moving  about  noiselessly  and 
were  found  to  be  thickly  congregated  as  the  hill- 
top was  gained.  Nowhere  was  English  spoken, 
the  few  white  people  encountered  talking  the 
same  tongue  as  their  dusky  brethren. 

"The  church  of  the  mission  was  found  to  be 
magnificently  situated  on  a  plateau  that  com- 
manded a  fine  view  up  and  down  the  river.  Im- 
mediately south  of  the  mission  buildings  a  gentle 
slope  stretched  aw^ay  to  the  Missouri,  on  the 
other  side  of  which  i-ugged  and  high  hills  cut 
off  a  further  view  of  Nebraska.     To  the  north 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  285 

the  plateau  ended  in  hills,  while  in  an  immense 
circle,  three  miles  in  circumference,  with  the 
church  as  a  center,  stretched  the  tepees  of  the 
many  tribes  of  the  Dakotas.  It  was  a  full  mile 
across  the  inclosure  from  east  to  west,  the  corral 
formed  by  the  assembled  Indians  being  well 
filled  with  hmidreds  of  horses  and  wild  ponies. 
From  the  church  came  the  musical  voices  of  a 
large  gathering  of  the  members  of  St.  Andrew's 
Brotherhood,  as  the  last  hymn  of  the  day  was 
being  sung  in  the  Dakota  tongue.  A  few  min- 
utes later  the  last  visitors  to  arrive  were  taken 
in  charge  by  a  Yankton  Indian  and  introduced 
to  Rev.  John  Flockhart  of  Greenwood  (Yank- 
ton Agency),  who  proved  hospitality  itself  and 
soon  had  his  guests  located  in  a  tent  with  such 
acconmiodations  as  were  to  be  had  under  the  cir- 
cumstances. The  night  was  too  fine  and  there 
was  too  much  to  see  to  think  of  retiring  until 
a  much  later  hour,  and,  the  rest  of  the  camp  on 
the  hill  thinking  the  same  way,  there  was  much 
to  occupy  one  for  a  couple  of  hours,  while  all 
around  the  flickering  lights  in  the  great  circle 
showed  that  the  many  tribes  of  Indians  assem- 
bled at  the  mission,  were  also  keeping  late  hours. 
Besides  the  Brotherhood  meeting  in  the  httle 
mission  church,  a  large  tent  revealed  a  "feast" 
that  was  being  given  by  the  Yankton  squaws  to 
the  sister  presidents  of  the  various  societies  rep- 


286     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

resented.  In  a  circle  were  seated  the  squaws, 
w^iile  in  the  place  of  honor  in  the  center,  were 
seated  on  a  bench  the  white  lady  visitors  of  the 
convocation.  .  .  .  Each  lady  president  was 
called  upon  to  speak  and  recounted  in  her  native 
tongue  the  work  accomplished  at  her  home 
agency.  The  numerous  speeches  disposed  of  in 
a  leisurely  and  dignified  way,  the  refreshments 
were  served,  in  rough  camp  style  perhaps,  but 
in  no  way  objectionable,  and  with  a  'you're  wel- 
come' air  about  everytliing  that  impressed  the 
white  visitors  greatly. 

*' Sunday  morning  the  great  camp  was  astir 
early,  the  squaws  being  the  first  to  appear  out- 
side their  tepees.  It  was  some  time  before  the 
clouds  of  mist  rolled  away  revealing  what  the 
moonlight  had  only  partially  shown  the  night  be- 
fore, but  when  at  last  the  sun  broke  through  and 
cleared  up  the  atmosphere  it  retained  its  advan- 
tage and  the  day  remained  as  perfect  as  the  night 
had  been.  This  was  the  great  day  of  the  con- 
vocation in  a  spiritual  way,  the  pre^dous  sessions 
having  been  devoted  largely  to  routine  business. 
The  venerable  Bishop  Hare,  w^ho  for  over  thirty 
years  has  been  ministering  to  the  Dakota  tribes, 
appeared  early  and  with  a  kindly  smile  greeted 
all  who  approached  him  to  pay  their  respects. 
Who  can  say  what  were  the  thoughts  of  the  di- 
vine as  he  gazed  on  the  panorama  spread  before 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  287 

him  and  which  fittingly  represented  his  labors  in 
so  many  years  of  hard  work?  The  picture 
greatly  impressed  the  white  visitors  and  they 
freely  expressed  themselves  to  that  effect,  and 
as  the  day  passed  to  its  close,  as  peaceable  and 
well-ordered  a  Sunday  as  was  ever  experienced 
anywhere,  that  impression  developed  into  wonder 
that  so  much  could  be  accomplished  under  the 
guiding  hand  of  one  faithful  man,  with  but  a 
small  handful  of  consecrated  men  to  assist  him. 

"As  the  gentle  morning  breeze  unfolded  the 
bunting  at  the  masthead  of  the  flagstaff  at  the 
great  temporary  pavilion,  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
spread  out,  while  underneath  the  more  peaceful 
banner  of  the  convocation  unfolded  its  strange 
lettering.  The  flag  was  white,  its  inscription  be- 
ing :  'Le  on  Ohiya  Yo ;  Niobrara  Omiciye  Kin,' 
which  in  English  would  mean,  'In  this  sign  con- 
quer; The  Niobrara  Deanery  Convocation.' 
The  flag  was  the  keynote  of  the  day's  proceed- 
ings, and  around  its  fluttering  folds  there  was 
much  of  interest  enacted  during  the  day. 

"At  9  o'clock  the  bell  in  the  quaint  old  mis- 
sion church  rang  out  the  half  hour  reminder, 
while  at  the  same  time  an  Indian  crier,  on 
horseback,  went  the  round  of  the  camp  announ- 
cing the  morning  service.  At  9:30  the  clerical 
procession  was  formed,  and  numbered,  in  vest- 
ments, in  all  ranks  from  Bishop  down  to  helpers, 


288     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

some  seventy-five  persons,  which  included  the 
Catechists,  Deacons  and  Priests.  Among  the 
latter  were  noted  Bishop  Hare,  Sioux  Falls; 
Rev.  W.  J.  Cleveland,  Pine  Kidge,  the  Dean  of 
the  Convocation;  Rev.  A.  B.  Clark,  Rosebud; 
Rev.  John  Flockhart,  Greenwood;  Rev.  H.  Burt, 
Crow  Creek;  Rev.  W.  J.  Wicks,  Springfield; 
Rev.  Frank  W.  Henry  of  Flandreau,  and  Rev. 
Edward  Ashley,  Cheyenne.  The  last  named 
had  charge  of  the  great  procession  and  with  much 
cleverness  and  tact  handled  the  numerous  tribes 
as  they  approached  with  flying  banners  and 
stately  tread,  each  from  their  section  of  the 
great  circle,  the  picture  as  the  various  sections 
approached  the  center  being  of  extreme  interest. 
'As  the  tribes  reached  the  large  pavilion  where 
the  services  took  place,  banners  were  folded, 
and  with  reverent  countenances  the  Dakotas 
passed  into  the  temporary  church  and  quietly 
seated  themselves.  The  banners  showed  the  fol- 
lowing agencies  represented:  Crow  Creek, 
Santee,  Rosebud,  Pine  Ridge,  Sisseton,  Flan- 
dreau, Lower  Brule,  Standing  Rock,  Cheyenne, 
Ponca  and  Yankton,  the  last  named  being  a 
large  representation,  it  being  the  home  tribe, 
which  was  out  in  great  numbers.  Almost  the 
entire  representation  was  of  the  great  Siouan 
stock  and  represented  the  well-known  tribes  of 
Blackfeet,  Brule  (upper  and  lower),  Cheyenne, 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  289 

Sioux  jMinnekonjo,  Ogallalla,  Sans  Arcs,  Sis- 
seton,  Two  Kettle,  Wahpeton,  Wazahzah  and 
Yankton.  Many  of  the  tribes  named  have 
merged  with  others  and  their  identity  has  almost 
been  lost.  All  these  people,  numbering  over 
three  thousand,  were  delegates  to  the  convoca- 
tion.    .     .     . 

"As  a  general  rule  there  was  Httle  to  note  as 
to  dress.  The  men  for  the  most  part  had 
adopted  the  costume  of  the  day,  with  sometimes 
the  retaining  of  the  Indian  moccasin.  Among 
the  women,  especially  the  younger  portion,  there 
is  more  to  tell. 

"The  old  squaw  was  there  in  her  best  shawl 
of  brilliant  hue.  Her  more  modest  sister  was  on 
hand  in  plain  black  or  perhaps  a  dark  green 
plaid,  both  of  which  were  very  common.  Others 
were  to  be  seen  m  prized  shawl  of  porcupine  or 
bead  work,  while  many  young  squaws  and  girls 
had  advanced  far  towards  the  Sunday  attire  of 
their  white  sisters,  appearing  robed  in  handsome 
changeable  silk  of  fashionable  style  and  excellent 
make.  To  the  silk  dress  was  frequently  added 
the  gingham  sunbonnet  and  beaded  moccasin. 
The  seven-cent  calico  in  quiet  colors,  black  with 
small  figure  prevailing,  was  also  seen,  the  ward- 
robe having  no  effect  whatever  in  attendance  at 
church  as  it  frequently  has  among  the  white  race. 
Silk  dress  marched  alongside  of  calico,  and  no 


290     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

envious  glances  were  noticed,  nor  indeed  an  ill- 
bred  stare,  the  congregation  being  intent  on  the 
service  at  hand  and  apparently  bestowing  little 
thought  on  the  minor  consideration  of  dress. 

"Among  the  native  clergy  were  noticed  Rev. 
Amos  Ross  of  Pine  Ridge;  Rev.  Phihp  Deloria 
of  Standing  Rock;  Rev.  Luke  C.  Walker  of 
Lower  Brule,  and  deacons,  Rev.  Joseph  St.  John 
Good,  teacher,  and  George  Red  Owl,  besides 
many  others.  The  first  service  of  the  day  com- 
prised the  rite  of  confirmation,  or  laying  on  of 
hands,  upon  a  large  class  of  old  and  young, 
among  whom  a  blind  boy  was  noticed.  Com- 
munion followed,  hundreds  of  Dakotas  staying 
for  the  sacrament.  In  the  afternoon  a  baptismal 
service  was  held  at  3:30,  and  at  4:30  another 
serv^ice  took  place,  at  which  a  number  of  Indians 
were  made  Workers,  the  first  step  toward  clerical 
life;  a  number  were  promoted  to  Catechists; 
others  were  made  Senior  Catechists  and  a  few 
were  advanced  to  Deaconship.  At  8  p.  m.  the 
last  service  of  the  day  was  held,  closing  with  a 
number  of  addresses  by  white  and  Indian  clergy 
and  others,  among  whom  were  Samuel  M.  Bro- 
sius,  of  Wasliington,  D.  C,  a  counselor-at-law 
of  the  Indian  Rights  Association,  and  by  the 
secretary  of  the  same  society,  who  was  also  pres- 
ent. Many  spoke  through  interpreters,  so  that 
white  visitors  could  enjoy  the  addresses. 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  291 

"Music  was  furnished  by  organ  and  cornet,  the 
latter  proving  an  excellent  instrument  to  lead 
the  vast  congregation.  The  Dakotas  astonished 
the  white  visitors  by  their  excellent  singing;  the 
Dakota  tongue  is  musical  and  soft,  and  the 
hymns  were  given  with  much  effect  and  hearti- 
ness by  people  who  only  a  few  years  ago  were 
in  a  state  of  heathenism  that  many  white  folks 
think  they  are  still  in  to-day,  but  which  the  con- 
vocation proved  was  an  idea  very  far  removed 
from  the  actual  facts. 

"A  convocation  such  as  described  calls,  of 
course,  for  a  great  amount  of  work  and  the 
Yanktons  have  been  preparing  for  the  great 
event  for  over  a  year.  Custom  demands  that 
hospitality  be  extended  to  all  tribes  attending 
and  the  sum  of  $600  raised  for  their  entertain- 
ment was  used  up  during  the  gathering. 
Wagon  loads  of  provisions  were  shipped  into 
Lake  Andes  and  were  hauled  to  the  camp — a 
daily  shipment  being  fifteen  cases  of  bread  alone. 
Fifteen  beeves  were  killed  and  were  cut  up  in 
Indian  style  by  the  squaws  and  hung  up  to  dry 
on  poles,  mth  nothing  but  the  sun  to  do  the 
curing.  All  of  this  and  many  other  sights,  made 
a  stroll  around  the  circle  of  616  tents  of  much 
interest.  I\Iany  tepees  were  neatness  itself, 
while  next  door  might  be  seen  the  extreme  re- 
verse.    Everywhere,  however,  was  kindly  greet- 


^92     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

ing  for  the  white  stranger,  who  was  met  with  a 
sincere  welcome  invariably.  Complete  absence 
of  anything  that  might  offend  the  most  sensitive 
ear  was  remarkable,  the  assembled  tribes  being 
on  company  behavior,  wliich  is  largely  continued 
in  everyday  life,  when  left  alone  by  the  trash 
tliat  infests  the  resen'^ations.  Many  temporary 
buildings  for  meetings  were  in  the  inclosure, 
while  A.  Van  S  cotter  and  others  conducted 
restaurants  and  refreshment  stands.  There  was 
no  sign  of  intoxicants  during  the  life  of  the  con- 
vocation.    .     .     . 

"Financially,  the  convocation  proved  the 
greatest  in  the  thirty  odd  years  of  its  annual 
gathering,  Bishop  Hare  announcing  that  the 
various  tribes  had  brought  in  an  offering  that 
would  reach  the  great  sum  of  $2,500,  which  is 
remarkable  when  the  slender  means  of  the  In- 
dian is  taken  into  consideration.  Many  promi- 
nent men  among  the  Yanktons  assisted  mate- 
rially towards  the  carrying  out  of  details,  while 
the  whole  tribe  has  worked  as  one  man  that  they 
might  acquit  themselves  with  honor  before  their 
xa  siting  brethren,  a  point  that  is  not  regarded 
with  indifference  among  Indians,  who  have  al- 
ways regarded  hospitality  as  among  their  most 
sacred  customs.  To  the  credit  of  all  who  at- 
tended, it  may  be  stated  that  there  was  no  viola- 
tion of  the  trust  and  confidence  of  the  Yanktons, 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  293 

and  not  a  tent  was  molested,  although  valuable 
belongings  were  to  be  seen  everywhere  in  open 
tents,  both  in  white  and  red  habitations;  the 
greatest  feeling  of  security  prevailed  at  all  times 
and  the  Indian  police  had  absolutely  nothing  to 
do,  though  Sunday  witnessed  the  arrival  of 
many  visitors  which  brought  the  attendance  up 
to  well  over  4,000  people." 

Between  the  lines  of  this  detailed  description 
one  may  read  many  suggestions  of  the  change 
that  had  come  in  the  tliirty  years  since  the  Da- 
kota tribes  had  waged  bitter  warfare  against 
each  other  and  the  white  intruders.  The  j^early 
spectacle  is  a  theme  for  poetry  no  less  than  prose, 
and  in  a  memorial  poem,  "William  Hobai-t 
Hare,"  by  Mrs.  Charles  A.  Eastman  (Elaine 
Goodale),  pubhshed  in  The  Outlook  a  few 
months  after  Bishop  Hare's  death,  the  scene  is 
presented  with  imaginative  vision: 

At  the  church  door  the  pious  pageant  forms  — 
The  grave  procession  of  the  white-robed  priests. 
The  solemn  joy  of  chanting  acolytes 
With  equal  step  advancing,  pacing  slow; 
The  circle  closes  round  them  thankfully. 
Lo,  in  the  midst  appears  a  reverend  form 
Upright  beneath  its  weight  of  years  and  griefs; 
A  face  deep-carven,  clear  as  cameo, 
Enhaloed  with  its  crown  of  silvern  locks  — 
A  stern,  strong,  fine,  humane,  uplifted  face 


294.     LIPE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

That  draws  our  eyes  to  heaven ;  and  now  a  voice 
Like  sad  cathedral  bells  tolls  in  our  ears 
Rebuke  and  solace,  pleading  and  command  — 
As  angel's  voice,  severe,  compassionate ! 

Now  in  the  crystal  twilight  of  the  west 
Vaster  horizons  open,  and  the  heavens 
Above  us  bloom  and  blush  like  giant  flowers. 
Deep  peace  enfolds  the  kneeling  multitudes 
Of  Ishmael's  sons  and  daughters  worshipful. 
While  the  last  rays  from  yonder  painted  dome 
Gleam  redly  on  the  Bishop's  sleeves  of  lawn  — 
On  the  white  hands — the  brooding,  dove-like  hands 
Outstretched  in  benediction. 

Darkness  falls. 
For  him  the  Psalmist's  meted  days  are  done; 
The  soul  released  through  purifying  pangs. 
The  mortal  puts  on  immortality. 

To  him  the  crown  of  well-spent  days     .     .     .     to  us 
The  farewell  blessing  of  those  outstretched  hands ! 

Besides  such  fruits  of  his  labors  as  Bishop 
Hare  could  see  in  the  Indian  Convocations,  there 
came  to  him  from  without  in  later  years  many 
recognitions  of  the  value  of  the  work  he  had  done. 
The  Indian  Bights  Association,  the  JMohonk 
Conference — of  which  in  1883,  he  was  one  of  the 
originators,  and  where  as  late  as  1907  he  made 
a  memorable  address  on  Indian  missions — turned 
to  him  as  a  friend  and  counselor;  the  Indian 
schools  at  Carlisle  and  Hampton  found  him  the 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  295 

most  sympathetic  and  helpful  of  visitors.  Ho- 
bart  College,  named  for  his  grandfather,  made 
liim  in  1893-4  its  Honorary  Chancellor.  In 
1893  his  friends  attempted  to  make  him  Bishop 
of  Massachusetts ;  but,  as  in  the  two  earlier  occa- 
sions of  the  same  nature,  the  choice  of  another 
man  brought  him  no  disappointment.  "No 
word  or  intimation  has  escaped  me,"  he  wrote 
to  his  fellow- workers,  "which  could  lead  even  my 
bosom  friends  to  suppose  that  I  have  had  any 
wish  except  to  end  my  days  here  in  South  Da- 
kota, nor  has  any  other  wish  found  a  place  in  the 
secrets  of  my  heart." 

The  chief  honor  of  these  later  years  came  to 
him  in  1898,  when  both  houses  of  the  General 
Convention,  assembled  in  Washington  paid  him 
an  unprecedented  compliment  in  recognizing 
formally  the  completion  of  twenty-five  j^ears  of 
episcopal  service,  in  passing  a  resolution  of 
thanks  and  love,  and,  through  Bishop  Potter, 
presenting  him  with  a  loving  cup.  It  is  wortli 
while  to  recall  a  portion  of  Bishop  Potter's 
speech  in  so  doing.  He  told  of  Bishop  Hare's 
effective  faith  in  a  disgraced  clergyman,  and 
proceeded : 

"I  put  beside  that,  Mr.  Chairman,  an  incident 
which  happened  during  the  Lambeth  Confer- 
ence, when  my  brother,  the  Bishop  of  South  Da- 
kota, in  a  foreign  land,  found  himself  next  to  a 


296     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

very  charming  woman  at  an  entertainment,  on 
the  other  side  of  whom  was  an  Anglican  Bishop 
who  has  passed  to  appropriate  obscurity.  This 
lady,  who  had  found  in  the  Bishop  of  South  Da- 
kota what  any  lady  would  find  in  him,  turning 
to  the  Anglican  Bishop  for  information,  said: 
'Who  is  this  gentleman  on  my  right?'  The 
answer,  which  the  Bishop  of  South  Dakota  over- 
heard, was,  'Only  a  Missionary  Bishop.'  I 
confess,  said  Bishop  Potter,  when  I  heard  that 
story  there  flashed  into  my  memory  that  incom- 
parable and  dramatic  story  by  Thackeray  of 
Jonathan  Swift,  where  he  spoke  of  his  having 
found  a  folded  sheet  of  paper  and  on  it  the  word 
*  Stella,'  and  then,  underneath,  describing  the 
contents  of  that  sheet  of  paper,  'only  a  lock  of 
hair.'  And  then,  Thackeray,  with  great  pathos, 
repeats  the  words:  'Only  a  lock  of  hair;  only 
devotion;  only  consistency;  only  infinite  pa- 
tience; only  the  largest  love;  only  the  sweetest 
sacrifice.'  ^  And  so  I  say,  'Only  a  Missionary 
Bishop ;  only  heroism ;  only  the  most  patient  and 
devoted  service;  only  the  most  constant  compas- 
sion; only  the  most  splendid  and  gracious  illus- 
tration which  our  Missionary  service  has  given 
us  of  devotion  to  the  cause  of  Christ  and  those 
who  are  forgotten  of  their  fellowmen.'  " 

1  In  this  report  of  Bishop  Potter's  speech  it  will  be  found  that 
the  spirit  and  not  the  letter  of  the  passage  from  Thackeray's 
essay  on  Dean  Swift  is  reproduced. 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  297 

Bishop  Hare's  characteristic  response  must 
ilso  be  remembered: 

"What  means  this  noble  act  of  confidence — 
this  merciful  auto-da-fe  m  which  the  fires  of 
fatherly  and  brotherly  love  are  consuming  me, 
their  happy  victim?  What  means  it  but  this, 
that  a  tender  appreciation  of  long-tried  servants 
pervades  the  Church  just  as  the  air  is  charged 
with  moisture,  and  that,  as  an  electric  shock  will 
sometimes  make  moisture  distil  in  a  refreshing 
shower,  so  an  anniversary  in  my  life  has  made 
the  pervasive  love  of  the  Church  coalesce  and 
take  outward  shape  in  this  distinct  and  gracious 
act. 

"I  feel  that  for  the  time  being  my  individual- 
ity is  lost  and  that  in  me  just  now  are  summar- 
ized and  capitulated  all  those  servants  of  the 
Church  who,  like  me,  have  labored  for  her  during 
many  years ;  and  so  I  would  summon  to  my  side 
as  I  stand  here  Bishop  Wilhams  who  has  labored 
for  more  than  twenty-five  years  in  Japan ;  Arch- 
deacon Thomson  who  has  labored  for  more  than 
twenty-five  years  in  Cliina;  Bishop  Holly  who 
has  labored  for  more  than  twenty-five  years  in 
Haiti;  Bishop  Ferguson  who  has  labored  for 
more  than  twenty-five  years  in  Africa;  Bishop 
Morris  who  has  labored  for  more  than  twenty- 
five  years  in  Oregon ;  and  with  them  I  would  in- 
clude all  those  dear  men  and  women  who  have 


298     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

given  long  service  under  me  in  South  Dakota — 
for  service  in  that  country  for  ten,  fifteen  and 
twenty-five  years  is  no  rare  thing — dear  fellow- 
workers  who  have  helped  me  in  my  hours  of 
despondency  to  believe  in  myself — sometimes  a 
very  important  thing — because  I  found  that  they 
believed  in  me.  It  is  their  faithful  work  which 
has  lifted  me  up  and  made  me  conspicuous  here 
like  the  dome  of  some  great  building,  and  I 
w^ould  remember  that  not  the  dome  but  the  sub- 
structure which  supports  it  is  the  more  important 
and  of  the  greater  practical  use. 

"I  may  not  detain  you  with  many  words.  In 
our  hours  of  deepest  emotion — I  am  sure  you  all 
feel  this — we  turn  to  our  Prayer-Book  version 
of  the  Psalms  to  find  words  for  the  best  expres- 
sion of  our  feelings  and  there  are  there  some 
verses  which  express  the  experience  of  my  past 
twenty-five  years,  at  once  the  pains  of  my  body, 
the  sorrows  of  my  heart  and  as  well  its  thanks  to 
my  brethren  and  its  gratitude  to  Almighty  God : 
► — ^'Oh,  what  great  troubles  and  adversities  hast 
Thou  showed  me !  and  yet  didst  Thou  turn  again 
and  refresh  me;  yea,  and  broughtest  me  from 
the  deep  of  the  earth  again.  Thou  hast  brought 
me  to  great  honor  and  comforted  me  on  every 
side;  therefore,  will  I  praise  Thee,  and  Thy 
faithfuhiess,  O  God.'  " 

Another  recognition  of  the  entire  Church  came 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  299 

in  1904  when  the  General  Convention  assembled 
in  Boston,  di\ided  the  country  into  eight  judicial 
districts,  each  \^dth  a  Court  of  Review  to  which 
a  clergyman  convicted  in  a  trial  court  might  take 
an  appeal.  Bishop  Hare  was  chosen  presiding 
officer  of  the  Sixth  Department,  consisting  orig- 
inally of  Minnesota,  North  and  South  Dakota, 
Iowa,  Nebraska,  Colorado,  Utah,  Idaho,  Wyom- 
ing, Montana,  Missouri  and  Kansas.  Of  this 
distinction  Bishop  Hare  wrote — perhaps  recall- 
ing the  days  of  trial  when  he  had  reason  to  fear 
that  his  wisdom  was  doubted — "I  consider  this 
election  as  Presiding  Judge  one  of  the  greatest 
honors  of  my  life." 

Bishop  Hare's  response  to  the  moving  words 
of  Bishop  Potter  was  highly  characteristic  of 
him — not  only  in  the  genuine  humility  of  its 
substance,  but  also  in  its  form.  The  concluding 
quotation  from  the  Psalter  was  typical  of  his 
constant  drawing  upon  the  Bible  and  the  Prayer 
Book  for  ultimate  expression  of  the  thought  he 
would  bring  home  to  his  hearers.  Indeed, 
throughout  his  writing  the  influence  of  the  Bible 
upon  his  style  is  frequently  manifest.  Perhaps 
its  admirable  clearness  and  vigor  need  no  other 
explanation.  The  greater  portion  of  what  he 
wrote  was  written  to  be  spoken  or  read.  In  his 
sermons  he  frequently  spoke  without  recourse  to 
manuscript,  and  ex  tempore  speech  was  often  re- 


300     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

quired  of  him;  but  what  he  Hked  best  to  do  was 
carefully  to  set  on  paper  what  he  had  to  say,  and 
then  to  disregard  the  written  word  and  utter  his 
message  fresh  alike  from  heart  and  lips.  As 
with  nearly  every  successful  speaker,  his  presence 
contributed  greatly  to  the  weight  of  his  words. 
Though  not  of  commanding  stature,  he  had  a 
dignit}^  and  nobihty  of  head  and  face  which  told 
his  hearers  at  once  that  here  was  a  man  they 
must  heed.  When  the  utterance  came  in  that 
agreeable  but  incisive  speech  and  voice  of  the 
Philadelphian  who  has  been  much  away  from 
Philadelphia,  there  stood  before  the  people, 
whether  at  an  Indian  chapel  in  South  Dakota,  or, 
as  in  1888,  at  Westminster  Abbey,  a  public 
speaker  of  rare  effectiveness. 

A  good  instance  of  the  tact  which  contributed 
to  his  effectiveness  as  a  speaker  to  the  Indians 
is  found  in  the  letter  of  a  lady  who  accompanied 
him  on  a  missionary  journey  in  1898; 

"At  the  next  stop,  St.  Peter's  Chapel,  a  bell 
inscribed  in  Dakota,  'Come,  worship  the  Lord,'  " 
she  wrote,  "called  the  people  together.  For 
some  reason  they  seemed  reluctant  to  come.  The 
cause  for  their  hesitation  appeared  when  the 
Bishop  began  to  address  them.  A  spirit  of  dis- 
sension had  taken  possession  of  the  congregation. 
At  one  time  it  divided  the  people  on  the  question 
of  the  retention  or  dismissal  of  their  catechist; 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  301 

at  another  time,  on  the  management  of  the 
women's  guild,  and  so  on.  The  Bishop  ap- 
proached the  dehcate  matter  somewhat  cau- 
tiously. He  first  commended  many  things  in  the 
life  and  conduct  of  the  congregation  and  then 
drew  out  the  monthly  report  of  the  missionary, 
which  gives  the  attendance  for  each  Sunday,  say- 
ing that  he  had  now  some  things  to  say  which, 
perhaps,  they  would  not  like  to  hear.  The  at- 
tendance at  service  had  been  very  small,  he 
noticed.  With  a  pleasant  irony,  he  asked  had 
they  been  having  very  bad  Sundays  lately? 
Had  the  wind  been  very  high  on  such  a  Sunday  ? 
Had  it  rained  on  such  another  Sunday,  or  was 
there  some  other  cause  for  the  small  attendance 
on  those  Sundays  ?  At  this  point  the  Bishop  ab- 
ruptly resorted  to  an  illustration,  'A  harness,' 
he  said,  'is  a  good  thing.  Wlien  you  put  it  on 
a  horse  it  looks  well  and  it  helps  the  horse  to  do 
his  work.  But  sometimes  a  horse  gets  tangled 
up  in  his  harness.'  The  Bishop  then  graphically 
described  a  horse  running  and  falling  down,  with 
the  lines  and  bridle  about  his  legs,  the  description 
being  evidently  fully  appreciated  by  the  Indians 
because  of  their  familiarity  with  horses.  The 
Bishop  added:  'Now  there  are  things  about  a 
congregation  which  are  like  a  harness.  The 
catechist,  the  organ,  the  one  who  plays  the  organ, 
the  women's  society,  the  men's  society,  are  all 


302     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

parts  of  a  church's  harness.  A  church  can  live 
without  a  harness;  but  the  harness  is  a  good 
thing".  It  helps  the  church  to  do  its  work.  But, 
alas,  sometimes  a  church,  like  a  horse,  gets 
tangled  up  in  its  harness.  This  happens  in  the 
w^hite  man's  country,  it  happens  in  the  Indian 
country.  Sometimes  the  people  get  in  a  tangle 
about  their  catechist;  sometimes  about  what 
tunes  shall  be  sung;  sometimes  about  who  shall 
be  president  of  the  women's  guild;  sometimes 
about  who  shall  have  the  next  supper.  That  is, 
in  some  way  the  church  gets  tangled  up  in 
its  harness.  You,  my  dear  friends,  have  got 
tangled  up  in  your  harness.  And  what  is  the 
remedy?  The  first  thing  a  man  does  when  his 
horse  gets  tangled  up  in  his  harness  and  falls 
down  is  to  run  to  his  head  and  try  to  quiet  liim, 
until  he  can  straighten  out  the  harness.  That  is 
what  I  am  here  for.  I  have  come  to  quiet  you, 
and  get  in  order  your  affairs.'  The  Bishop  had 
drawn  so  vivid  a  parallel  between  their  condition 
and  that  of  horses  struggling  in  a  tangled  harness 
that  the  Rev.  Mr.  Burt  began  to  chuckle  as  he 
interpreted;  then  the  Bishop,  and  one  by  one  the 
stony  faces  in  the  congregation  began  to  soften 
in  confiding  wonder  at  their  Bishop's  humor, 
then  they  relaxed  into  kindly  smiles.  This  epi- 
sode, followed  by  some  grave,  earnest  words,  sq, 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  303 

untangled  the  congregation  that  both  factions 
were  able  to  come  together  at  the  Lord's  table, 
and  after  service  to  sit  down  harmoniously  in  the 
open  air  at  a  common  lunch." 

His  native  humor  often  stood  him  in  good 
stead.  Sometimes  it  told  him  when  it  was  best 
to  keep  silence.  Writing  to  his  sister  at  the  time 
of  the  General  Convention  in  Boston  in  1877,  he 
said:  "I  didn't  speak  at  the  great  missionary- 
meeting  after  all.  My  predecessors  effectually 
scrouged  me  off.  The  first  spoke  forty  minutes, 
the  second  over  fifty,  the  third  twenty.  I  was 
relieved  rather  than  otherwise,  and  the  people 
were  so  gratified  when  I  refused  to  speak  that  I 
was  for  the  moment  the  most  popular  man." 
Again  in  Boston,  in  1896,  the  hour  was  late  when 
his  turn  came  to  speak  at  a  dinner  of  the  Episco- 
palian Club.  He  w^as  brevity  itself,  and  de- 
clared that  he  believed  fervently  in  the  witty 
Frenchman's  discovery  that  man's  head  had  been 
given  him  for  just  the  same  reason  that  a  pin's 
was,  to  keep  him  from  going  too  far.  Then 
sitting  down,  neither  the  president's  urgency  nor 
the  company's  applause  could  bring  him  to  his 
feet  again.  Like  many  another  who  has  dealt 
best  with  audiences  and  individuals, 

"Still  with  parable  and  with  myth 
Seasoning  truth,  like  Them  of  old," 


SO-k     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

he  appreciated  the  value  of  apt  anecdote  and 
illustration.  A  Sioux  Falls  physician  is  quoted 
in  the  newspapers  as  saying  that  Bishop  Hare 
used,  very  reasonably,  to  impute  much  skepticism 
to  misunderstanding.  A  Philadelphia  business 
man  of  skeptical  tendencies,  he  said,  once  re- 
marked to  him:  "My  dear  Mr.  Hare,  I  do  not 
refuse  to  beUeve  in  the  story  of  the  ark.  I  can 
accept  its  enormous  size,  its  odd  shape,  and  the 
vast  number  of  animals  it  contained.  But  when 
I  am  asked  to  believe  that  the  children  of  Israel 
carried  the  unwieldy  thing  for  forty  years  in 
the  wilderness — ^well,  there,  I'm  bound  to  say, 
my  faith  breaks  do^Mi." 

Of  the  traits  which  presented  themselves 
clearly  to  one  who  worked  in  close  association 
with  him  for  twenty-three  years,  IMiss  Mary  B. 
Peabody,  his  secretary,  has  given  a  valuable  sum- 
mary: "One  [trait]  was  his  rare  teachableness. 
He  was  ready  to  learn  of  any  one, — a  child,  a 
plumber,  a  doctor, — whoever  was  expert  in  the 
particular  subject  about  which  he  wished  infor- 
mation, and  he  gave  to  his  teacher  the  same 
deference  which  undoubtedly  he  gave  to  his 
teachers  as  a  schoolboy  or  a  student  in  college. 
The  range  of  things  in  which  he  was  interested 
was  great  and  did  not  contract  as  the  years  went 
by,  even  when  pain  made  it  hard  for  him  to  talk 
much. 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  305 

"Another  was  his  gentleness  and  readiness  to 
acknowledge  what  he  considered  a  fault.  .  .  . 
Another  characteristic  I  have  never  met  any- 
where else:  he  never  asked  advice  except  when 
he  meant  to  take  it,  and,  so  far  as  I  know,  it 
was  his  rule  to  act  upon  the  advice  given.  That 
tended  to  make  one  very  careful  in  giving,  of 
course. 

"Another  was  his  power  of  concentration 
which  made  it  possible  for  him  to  lay  entirely 
aside  some  thing  on  which  he  was  at  work  and 
give  his  undivided  thought  to  another  totally 
different  thing,  then  to  go  back  and  take  up  the 
first  task  where  he  left  off.  Often  when  he  was 
interrupted  wliile  in  the  midst  of  dictation,  per- 
haps by  a  caller,  he  came  back  and  took  up  the 
sentence  just  where  he  had  left  it.  The  same 
power  made  it  possible  for  him  to  close  a  painful 
transaction  and  not  to  brood  over  it.  If  there 
was  a  very  hard  letter  to  write,  sometimes  he 
paced  the  floor  while  he  was  dictating, — this  hap- 
pened only  three  or  four  times  in  my  memory, — 
and  when  the  last  word  was  said,  he  sat  do^vn 
calmly  and  went  on  with  other  tilings  quite  as 
if  all  had  been  easy. 

"While  capable  of  righteous  indignation,  he 
was  remarkably  free  from  resentment  when  an 
injurj^  or  slight  was  done  himself.  I  never  saw 
him  in  the  least  ruffled  bj^  anything  of  that  sort. 


306     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

At  the  same  time  he  was  strict  with  those  with 
whom  he  had  to  deal,  and  never  accepted  work 
which  was  not  according  to  contract.  I  do  not 
mean  that  he  was  exacting,  only  that  his  way 
tended  to  keep  people  up  to  their  best." 

It  was  of  course  in  connection  with  important 
questions  of  local  and  general  interest  that  his 
ripened  powers  of  thought  and  expression  dis- 
played themselves  most  clearly.  Of  these  fruits 
of  experience  the  best  evidence  lies  in  the  written 
record,  and  the  remainder  of  this  chapter  may 
well  be  given  to  passages  from  some  of  his 
later  writings.  In  his  annual  Convocation  Ad- 
dresses, in  his  baccalaureate  sermons  at  All 
Saints  School,  in  public  utterances  outside  of 
South  Dakota,  there  is  much  that  one  would 
preserve,  but  a  few  characteristic  deliverances 
must  be  taken  as  typical  of  many. 

In  the  Convocation  address  of  1899  there  is 
the  following  presentation  of  the  subject  of 
Biblical  knowledge  and  criticism: 

"And  now,  some  words  about  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures. They  are  chief  among  the  sacred  treas- 
ures which  the  Church  holds  in  trust  for  her 
members  and  for  the  world.  They  are  the 
Church's  authoritative  records  of  God's  dealings 
with  His  people,  and  of  the  gifts  which  He  has 
vouchsafed  them  in  the  teachings  of  his  Prophets, 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  307 

Psalmists  and  other  spokesmen,  in  the  lives  of 
His  saints,  and  especially  in  the  incarnation  of 
His  eternal  Son.  In  these  Scriptures  the  creed 
of  the  universal  Church  finds  its  most  certain 
warrant.  So  important  does  the  Church  con- 
sider the  knowledge  of  these  Scriptures  to  be  to 
her  people  generally,  that  she  sets  forth  in  her 
Prayer  Book  an  order  in  which  they  are  to  be 
read  in  public  worship  in  what  are  called,  in 
language  full  of  practical  suggestiveness,  the 
first  and  second  lessons. 

"These  Scriptures  we  have  tested.  We  find 
that  they  search  our  hearts,  reproach  us  for  our 
shortcomings,  and  prompt  us  to  try  to  be  our 
best.  We  have  rested  our  hearts  upon  them  in 
dire  trouble  and  have  found  them  the  consolation 
and  rejoicing  of  our  hearts.  Not  only  the 
word,  but  the  book  that  conveys  it  to  us,  are  dear 
— nay,  the  precise  words  of  our  English  transla- 
tion and  the  very  place  upon  the  page  occupied 
by  some  precious  text  in  a  well-read  Bible — are 
dear  to  us.  The  book  is  like  a  mother  to  us. 
The  reputation  of  the  book  is  like  a  mother's 
reputation.  And  so  it  comes  to  pass  that  our 
language  regarding  the  Bible  and  every  word 
of  it  is  apt  to  be  intense,  unmeasured  and  sweep- 
ing, for  love  cannot  bear  qualifications.  Strong 
feeling  is  impatient  of  nice  calculations  of  less 
and  more.     The  Bible  could  never  survive  if  it 


308     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

did  not  command  this  fervent  allegiance,  for  its 
work  is  always  a  contest,  a  contest  with  aggres- 
sive foes,  the  world,  the  flesh  and  the  devil ;  and, 
however  valuable  the  calculating  judicial  spirit 
may  be  in  contriving  and  directing  the  campaign, 
the  fighting  must  be  done  by  enthusiasts,  espe- 
cially where,  as  in  this  case,  compulsory  service 
camiot  be  resorted  to. 

"But  valuable  as  unmeasured  devotion  and  the 
language  which  it  inspires  are,  there  is  a  certain 
danger  iu  them.  'Incredible  praises  unto  men,' 
wrote  the  judicious  Hooker  long  ago,  'do  often 
abate  and  impair  the  credit  of  their  deserved 
commendation;  so  we  must  take  great  heed,  lest, 
in  attributing  to  Scripture  more  than  it  can  have, 
the  incredibility  of  that  do  cause  even  those 
things  which  it  hath  most  abundantly  to  be  less 
reverently  esteemed.'  There  is  another  danger 
in  indiscriminate  devotion,  and  this  becomes  very 
apparent  when  we  pass  from  the  sphere  of  de- 
votion and  of  the  actual  fight  to  the  sphere  of 
those  to  whom  it  belongs  to  contrive  and  direct 
the  campaign.  Here  careful  investigation  of 
the  field,  exact  knowledge  of  the  importance  of 
its  various  parts  and  a  right  estimate  of  what  is 
not  worth  fighting  for  are  of  the  first  impor- 
tance. 

"These  investigations  are  sure,  however,  to 
cause  at  least  temporary  disturbance  and  not  a 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  309 

little  pain.  For  one,  however,  I  must  avow  that 
I  think  they  should  go  on.  Complacent  igno- 
rance as  to  the  true  character  of  Scripture  is  out 
of  date.  All  men  now  know  enough  to  make 
intelligent  men  wish  for  more.  It  is  well  known, 
for  example,  that  inspired  men  were  themselves 
deeply  moved  by  the  truths  which  they  were  com- 
missioned to  convey  to  others;  that  inspiration 
has  come  to  us  affected  by  their  mental  acts  or 
states,  that  in  the  act  of  communicating  to  others 
their  mental  acts  or  states  they  resorted  to  all  the 
methods  of  composition  and  expression  which 
mark  ordinary  literary  productions.  They  pick 
up  gems  from  other  writers  and  make  all  sorts  of 
quotations.  Parable,  allegory  and  legend;  hy- 
perbole, sarcasm  and  irony,  are  not  beneath  their 
use;  the  dramatic  style,  the  tragic,  the  poetic,  as 
well  as  the  prosaic,  all  are  laid  under  contribu- 
tion. This  being  so,  it  is  certainly  within  the 
proper  province  of  the  Biblical  scholar  to  ask,  as 
the  case  may  suggest,  such  questions  as  these: 
How  far  does  the  writer  commit  himself  to  all 
the  statements  contained  in  his  quotation?  Is 
this  a  simple  matter-of-fact  statement,  or  is  this 
an  allegory,  or  a  legend?  Does  the  author  say 
what  he  means,  or,  is  this  a  case  of  irony  in  which 
the  author  says  what  he  does  not  mean? 

"It  is  also  well  known  that  not  infrequently 
compositions  of  several  authors  have  been,  for 


310     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

one  reason  or  another,  grouped  together  in  one 
book  which  has  been  called  popularly  by  the 
name  of  some  one  author,  an  author  who,  for 
one  reason  or  another,  has  perhaps  come  to  be 
peculiarly  connected  with  such  writings.  For 
example,  the  Psalms  are  frequently  called  the 
Psalms  of  David,  though  it  is  well  known  that 
the  Psalms  are  the  work  of  many  different  au- 
thors and  were  produced  at  many  different  dates. 
It  is  certainly  within  the  proper  province  of  the 
Biblical  student  to  dissect  these  composite  books, 
and  to  assign,  as  far  as  he  can,  the  several  parts 
to  their  respective  authors. 

"It  is  well  known  that  the  Scriptures  were 
chiefly  used  in  early  days  (as  was  intended)  for 
devotional  and  practical  purposes,  and  not  with 
the  intellectual  restrictions  of  system  makers  or 
the  mathematical  precision  of  workers  in  mosaic, 
and  that  for  this  reason,  as  well  as  others,  pas- 
sages from  one  writer  were  frequently  copied 
into  the  manuscripts  of  others  if  thereby  the 
thought  were  elucidated,  enriched,  or  confirmed. 
It  is  certainly  within  the  proper  province  of  the 
Biblical  scholar  to  analyze  any  book  and  to  show 
just  what  was  the  work  of  its  author. 

"Some  would  require  that  this  work  of  in- 
vestigation should  be  carried  on  by  the  Church 
officially  and  as  a  whole,  and  that  it  should  not 
be  left  to   individual   ejffort.     But  this   would 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  811 

never  do,  for  much  of  this  work  must  be  for 
many  years  to  come  purely  provisional,  and  sub- 
ject to  correction.  The  Church  as  a  whole  and 
officially  cannot  commit  herself  to  that  which  is 
provisional  and  subject  to  correction.  Only 
when  individual  learning  has  done  its  work  and 
won  the  consent  of  scholars  generally  can  the 
Church  express  herself.  Meanwhile,  this  work 
of  Biblical  analysis  will  inevitably  be  carried  on 
by  many  men,  of  many  minds,  of  many  tastes,  of 
many  manners,  and  if  any  one  of  them  deal  with 
the  sacred  records  in  their  present  form  in  a  man- 
ner which  seems  to  us  rude  or  heartless  or  un- 
filial  and  yet  protests  that  he  holds  'the  faith  once 
delivered  to  the  saints'  as  expressed  in  the  Creeds, 
and  that  he  loves  and  lives  on  God's  written 
Word  and  delights  in  the  inspiration  which  dis- 
tinguishes it  from  all  other  books,  and  that  he 
does  not  mean  to  be  rude,  or  unfilial,  however 
much  he  may  seem  to  us  to  be  so,  I  think  we  must 
take  him  at  his  word  ( for  what  man  knoweth  the 
spirit  of  a  man,  save  the  spirit  of  a  man  that  is  in 
him?)  and  accept  his  good  heart,  however  much 
we  may  lament  his  bad  manners. 

"Meanwhile,  let  us  pursue  our  Christian  course 
in  confidence  and  peace.  The  Church's  Bible  is 
the  Word  of  God — His  Word  not  in  the  sense 
that  its  words,  whether  in  our  Enghsh  translation 
or  in  the  Hebrew  or  the  Greek  of  the  original 


312     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

were  literally  uttered  by  God,  but  in  the  sense 
in  which  the  translators  of  our  commonly  re- 
ceived version  interpreted  the  phrase,  Word  of 
God.  In  their  address  to  the  reader,  often 
printed  as  an  introduction  to  our  Bibles,  they 
say:  'We  affirm  and  avow  that  the  very  mean- 
est translation  of  the  Bible  into  English — con- 
taineth  the  Word  of  God,  nay,  is  the  Word  of 
God:  as  the  King's  speech  which  he  uttered  in 
Parliament,  being  translated  into  French,  Dutch, 
Italian  and  Latin,  is  still  the  King's  speech, 
though  it  be  not  interpreted  by  every  translator 
with  the  like  grace,  nor  peradventure  so  fitly  for 
phrase,  nor  so  expressly  for  sense,  everywhere.' 
The  Bible  is  the  King's  Word,  the  Word  of  God. 
As  such  it  will  abide  forever.  Many  facts  tend 
to  reassure  us  of  this. 

"The  efforts  of  scholars  have,  during  the  last 
thirty  or  forty  years,  translated  into  the  lan- 
guages of  Europe  all  those  sacred  books  of  the 
East  which  some  persons  once  thought  would 
prove  to  contain  treasures  of  religious  teaching 
which  would  vie  with  the  Scriptures  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  Research  has  now  brought  to  light 
all  that  the  mind  of  man  all  the  world  over  seek- 
ing after  God  has  been  able  to  imagine  or  dis- 
cover. A  Christian  heart  should  not  decry  any 
good  thing  wherever  found,  and,  for  myself,  I 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  313 

can  from  my  heart  take  up  the  words  of  one  of 
our  own  poets: 

"  'I  gather  up  the  scattered  rays 
Of  wisdom  in  the  early  days^ 
Faint  gleams  and  broken,  like  the  light 
Of  meteors  in  a  northern  night. 
Revealing  to  the  darkling  earth 
The  unseen  sun  which  gave  them  birth.' 

"But  precious  as  these  gems  are,  the  result 
of  the  comparison  of  the  writings  of  the  non- 
Christian  world  with  the  Scriptures  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  is  distinctly  this  verdict,  namely,  that 
these  Scriptures  deserve  a  place  by  themselves. 
They  have  a  moral  and  spiritual  dignity  unap- 
proached.  They  are  unique.  We  may  safely 
reiterate  to-day  the  assertion  of  the  old  Psalmist, 
*He  gave  His  word  unto  Jacob ;  His  statutes  and 
ordinances  unto  Israel.  He  hath  not  dealt  so 
with  any  nation,  neither  have  the  heathen  knowl- 
edge of  His  laws.' 

"True,  these  are  days  of  scorn  and  scoffing. 
But  this  is  no  new  thing.  All  the  ages  down 
some  men  have  superciliously  declared,  'The  days 
of  religion  are  numbered.'  But  her  sacred  books 
outlast  the  critics.  Resting  her  hand  upon  the 
Bible,  the  Church  can  say,  'Here  is  an  anvil  that 
has  worn  out  many  a  hammer.' 


81i     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

"In  these  Scriptures  are  some  things  hard  to 
be  understood,  as  St.  Peter  testified,  and  some 
wrest  them  to  the  vexation  of  their  brethren  and 
their  own  hurt;  but  the  well-meaning  have  al- 
ways found  in  them,  will  always  find  in  them, 
a  discerner  of  the  thoughts  and  intents  of  their 
hearts,  a  light  for  their  feet  along  this  world's 
dark  road,  and  the  saving  knowledge  of  the  only 
true  God  and  Jesus  Christ  Whom  He  hath  sent. 
By  a  heaven-taught  instinct  they  almost  uncon- 
sciously pass  by  what  they  cannot  understand  or 
assimilate,  and  feed  on  that  which  is  proper  to 
their  need.  To  use  an  illustration,  they  eat  the 
oyster,  and  do  not  break  their  teeth  upon  its  shell. 

"There  are  honest  doubters.  The  Bible  con- 
tains difficulties  which,  for  the  time,  may  turn 
some  of  the  best  of  men  against  it.  But  most 
of  the  opponents  of  the  Bible  are  conscious  in 
their  heart  of  hearts  that  not  the  Bible  but  their 
own  hearts  and  lives  are  in  the  wrong.  Here  is 
the  deep  secret  of  hostility.  'The  only  objection 
to  this  book,'  said  a  dying  unbeliever,  'is  a  bad 
life.' 

"The  present  day  is  marked  by  much  gay  un- 
concern about  the  Bible.  When  all  goes  merry 
as  a  marriage  bell  men  find  amusement  and 
satisfaction  in  visiting  all  sorts  of  shrines,  but 
momentous  junctures  come  to  all  men,  crises  in 
which  all  that  they  relied  upon — their  health. 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  815 

their  wealth,  their  learning,  their  pride,  their 
choicest  books  vanish,  and  they  are  ready  to  say, 
with  Sir  Walter  Scott  in  the  day  of  his  depart- 
ing, 'There  is  only  one  book  now.'  " 

In  the  year  1890,  the  question  of  prohibition 
and  temperance  led  to  intemperate  divisions  in 
South  Dakota.  A  prohibition  bill  of  the  most 
sweeping  nature,  threatening  even  the  legahty  of 
using  wine  in  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per, was  before  the  Legislature.  Bishop  Hare 
protested  against  its  passage,  in  a  letter  to  the 
Legislature,  urging,  "that  the  proposed  bill 
should  be  so  amended  by  the  addition,  as  occa- 
sion may  require,  of  the  word  'sacramental,'  and 
be  otherwise  so  amended  that  it  will  not  create 
a  conflict  of  duties."  This  course  called  down 
upon  him  the  bitterest  denunciation  of  the  violent 
prohibitionists.  In  a  letter  prepared  for  the 
public  press,  withlield,  and  then  given  to  a  lim- 
ited circle  in  his  diocesan  paper,  The  Church 
News,  he  answered  his  assailants  in  part  as  fol- 
lows: 

"Two  remarks  in  conclusion;  one  as  to  the  gist 
of  my  petition  to  the  Legislature,  and  the  other 
as  to  the  essential  character  of  the  Prohibition 
bill. 

"It  will  be  noticed  that  the  point  of  my  peti- 
tion was  that  the  proposed  Prohibition  bill,  un- 


316     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

less  modified,  would  violate  the  solemn  convic- 
tions and  sacred  rights  of  a  large  body  of 
intelligent,  sober  and  useful  members  of  the 
community.  Now,  how  is  this  respectful  and 
serious  remonstrance  met?  Is  the  truth  of  my 
statement  denied?  Not  at  all.  On  the  contrary 
the  existence  of  such  a  class  of  persons  is  ad- 
mitted, though  somewhat  scornfully,  and  then 
the  altogether  irrelevant  fact  is  brought  tri- 
umphantly forward  that  a  certain  other  class  of 

people,    namely.    Elder    B and   his    class, 

hold  another  opinion.  And  what  then?  That 
each  class  shall  be  left  free  to  follow  their  own 
convictions?  Not  at  all;  but,  forsooth,  that  a 
law  shall  be  passed  by  which  those  who  do  not 

agree  with  Elder  B and  his  friends  shall  be 

persecuted  and  driven  to  the  wall.  I  thank  him 
for  exposing  so  plainly  the  bigotry  and  intoler- 
ance of  the  proposed  legislation.  Translated 
into  plain  English  the  proposal  is:  'You  and 
others  think  so  and  so  in  religion ;  I  and  my  class 
do  not  think  so  and  so;  and  because  you  differ 
from  us  we  intend  to  make  you  smart  for  your 
temerity  by  calling  in  the  secular  power  and  pass- 
ing a  law  which  will  make  you  pay  for  the  ex- 
ercise of  your  religious  convictions  by  fine  and 
imprisonment.'  Our  excellent  brethren  have 
surely  for  a  moment  forgotten  themselves.  In 
their  zeal  they  have  made  a  slip.    All  of  us 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  317 

sometimes  make  them.  Then  let  the  conscious- 
ness of  our  common  infirmity  increase  our  sense 
of  brotherhood  and  our  desire  for  mutual  tolera- 
tion. 

"Now  a  remark  as  to  the  bill  itself.  I  ear- 
nestly believe  that  the  evils  resulting  from  the 
abuse  of  wines  and  liquors  have  reached  appall- 
ing proportions  and  call  for  the  most  strenuous 
efforts  to  check  them  in  the  family,  in  the  school, 
on  the  platform,  in  the  pulpit,  and  in  the  halls 
of  legislation;  and  though  I  do  not  myself  be- 
lieve in  Prohibition,  but  prefer  high  license,  I 
took  no  steps  to  oppose  the  proposed  law,  as  the 
majority  seemed  to  be  strongly  in  favor  of  it 
and  I  did  not  wish  to  create  division.  Had  any 
reasonable  prohibitory  bill  been  proposed  I 
should  have  acquiesced  in  it.  But  in  my  opinion 
the  bill  in  question  is  unworthy  of  free,  manly, 
straightforward  people.  It  is  essentially  levit- 
ical  and  non-Christian.  It  is  'apron  string' 
legislation.  It  undertakes  to  treat  all  persons 
as  though  they  were  children.  It  is  besides  in- 
quisitorial and  pharisaically  minute  and  particu- 
lar. It  legislates  regarding  an  article  which  in 
one  shape  or  another  for  one  reason  and  another, 
men  will  have,  and  its  stringent  provisions  will 
drive  them  to  get  it  by  equivocation  and  by  tricks 
and  evasions.  Under  its  operation  subterfuges 
will  abound.     There  will  be  no  other  way  of  pro- 


318     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

tecting  one's  self  against  a  powerful  and  in- 
tolerant majority  than  equivocation  and  circum- 
vention; intended  to  make  men  sober,  this  law- 
will  tend  to  make  them  liars.  Drunkards  are 
loathsome,  but  more  hateful  still  are  a  people 
who,  deprived  of  their  liberty,  have  become 
cowardly,  secretive  and  false." 

An  illuminating  sequel  to  this  passage  is 
found  in  the  next  number  of  The  Church  News 
(March,  1890),  which  copied  from  a  Sioux  Falls 
newspaper  a  brief  notice  of  a  meeting  called  to 
consider  the  organization  of  an  enforcement 
league  in  Sioux  Falls.  "Bishop  Hare  said  he 
had  come  to  the  meeting  to  add  what  he  could 
by  his  presence.  He  did  not  agree  with  every- 
body present  on  the  prohibition  question,  but  he 
was  as  much  opposed  as  any  to  the  open  saloon 
and  drink  habit.  They  were  a  hideous  wen  on 
the  body  politic.  He  should  prefer  to  go  at  the 
wen  with  a  surgeon's  knife  instead  of  with  a 
dirk,  as  the  prohibitory  law  did.  But  the  people 
of  the  state  had  decided  in  favor  of  the  latter, 
and  so  he  said  with  all  good  citizens,  go  at  the 
wen  with  a  dirk." 

In  the  Annual  Convocation  Address  of  1903, 
there  is  an  extended  treatment  of  the  proposal  to 
change  the  name  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  so  as  to  include  the  word  "Catholic." 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  319 

The  passage  is  too  long  to  quote  in  its  entirety, 
but  the  following  extracts  from  it  will  speak 
with  sufficient  fulness  for  Bishop  Hare's  clarity 
of  thought  and  word.  After  speaking  of  a  re- 
quest from  a  committee  of  the  General  Conven- 
tion for  an  individual  expression  of  opinion  from 
the  Bishops,  he  proceeds: 

"I  have  answered  that  I  do  not  desire  a 
change  in  the  name  of  our  Church  at  this  time. 
And  yet  I  am  willing  to  confess  that  there  is 
something  in  this  proposal  to  change  the  name 
of  the  Church  which  is  not  wholly  foreign  to 
my  modes  of  thought  and  feeling.  There  is  in 
many  hearts,  I  think,  a  groping  after  something 
better  than  the  endless  divisions  which  have  so 
seriously  taken  away  from  the  moral  dignity  and 
authority  of  the  Church,  weakened  its  power  to 
be  a  unifying  and  sanctifying  influence  upon  its 
own  members  and  upon  mankind  in  general, 
and  impaired  its  power  to  protect  and  use  the 
sacred  truths  committed  to  its  care.  They  feel 
that  present  conditions  in  the  Christian  and  in 
the  heathen  world  demand  that  we  should  get 
clearer  conceptions  of  that  institution  which  is 
called  'The  Cathohc  Church';  that  we  should 
give  more  importance  in  our  thought  and  action 
to  the  fact  that  a  great  river  of  truth  and  grace, 
a  river  of  life,  issued  forth  from  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  the   incarnate   Son  of  God,  when   He 


320     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

created  and  endowed  His  Church;  that  this  river 
is  flowing  full  and  rich  to-day;  and  that  the  truth 
which  it  carries  with  it  exists  distinct  from  the 
Biblical  record  of  it.  At  first  sight  it  seems  that 
this  movement  to  change  the  name  of  the  Church 
gives  promise  of  meeting  this  want  and  giving 
the  rehef  which  some  are  groping  for. 

"I  cannot  think,  however,  that  this  hope  will 
prove  well  grounded.  Let  me  lay  before  you 
as  calmly  as  I  can  a  statement  of  the  case  just  as 
it  stands,  premising  that  it  is  not  a  little  afi'ected 
by  the  fact  that  the  proposal  was  brought  before 
the  General  Convention,  and  has  been  most  con- 
spicuously pressed,  by  those  who  favor  the  intro- 
duction of  the  word  'CathoHc'  into  the  name  of 
the  Church. 

"On  the  general  subject  of  The  Holy  Catholic 
Church  our  position  is  well  known  and  unequiv- 
ocal. We  have  always  stood  up  before  God  and 
man  and  made  in  the  Apostles'  Creed  our  great 
confession,  'I  believe  in  the  Holy  Catholic 
Church.'  No  one  can  be  admitted  witliin  our 
fold  by  baptism  without  an  avowal,  in  person  or 
by  sponsors,  of  that  article  of  the  Faith ;  no  one 
can  be  received  to  confirmation  or  the  Holy 
Communion  without  a  reiteration  of  that  avowal, 
and  in  daily  public  prayers  and  especially  in  our 
greatest  act  of  public  worship,  the  Holy  Com- 
munion, our  people  do,  and  must,  again  and 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  321 

again  repeat  that  avovval.  And  notice  that  our 
avowal  is  not  merely  that  there  is  a  Holy  Catho- 
lic Church ;  but  that  we  believe  in  it.  It  is  to  us 
a  supernatural  creation.  It  is  the  body  of 
Christ.  We  believe  that  it  holds  the  faith  once 
delivered  to  the  saints ;  that  it  is  the  sphere  of  the 
special  action  of  the  Holy  Spirit;  that  it  has  a 
right  to  our  allegiance;  and  that  in  it  we  shall 
find,  through  the  power  of  its  Head,  if  we  are 
faithful,  'the  communion  of  saints,  the  forgive- 
ness of  sins  and  life  everlasting.' 

"Thus  avowing  constantly  and  before  all  the 
world  our  faith  in  the  Holy  Catholic  Church,  it 
is  a  necessary  conclusion  that,  belonging  as  we 
do  to  that  particular  religious  body  which  is 
called  'Protestant  Episcopal,'  we  virtually  de- 
clare our  faith  that  that  'Protestant  Episcopal' 
Church  is  a  true,  living,  particular  branch  of  The 
Holy  Catholic  Church. 

"This  is  our  creed.  We  have  acted  accord- 
ingly. In  practice  we  have  preserved  unbroken 
the  continuity  of  our  Church  life  and  protected  its 
transmission  from  any  possibiHty  of  tamt  or  vitia- 
tion. We  have  always  unequivocally  declared, 
too,  that  we  have  never  broken  witli,  and  could 
not  be  guiltj^  of  breaking  ^vith,  The  Holy  Catho- 
lic Church.  We  have  never  baptized  into  any 
sect  nor  into  any  other  name  than  that  of  Father, 
Son  and  Holy  Ghost;  nor  have  we  imposed  sec- 


322     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

tariaii  conditions  of  Church  membership.  This 
position  we  inherited  from  our  mother  Church  of 
England  and  maintained  when  we  became  inde- 
pendent and  when  we  took  to  ourselves  the  name 
'Protestant  Episcopal.'  Our  being  in  name 
'Protestant  Episcopal'  has  in  no  way  interfered 
with  this  grand  avowal  of  the  Creed.  The  name 
may  have  intimated  that  we  did  not  claim  to  be 
the  whole  of  The  Holy  Catholic  Church.  It 
may  have  drawn  attention,  too,  to  the  contests 
and  trials  through  which  The  Holy  Catholic 
Church  has  passed  in  its  liistory,  to  the  fact  that 
these  contests  have  sorel}^  divided  the  Catholic 
Church,  that  the  Church  called  'Protestant  Epis- 
copal' is  only  one  of  the  fragments,  and  also  to 
the  fact  that  in  the  great  division  which  took 
place  in  the  sixteenth  century  our  Church  put  it- 
self on  the  Protestant  and  not  on  the  Roman  side 
of  the  great  line  of  cleavage ;  but  the  name  has  no 
Vvay  belied  our  grand  avowal;  'I  believe  in  The 
Holy  Catholic  Church.' 

"For  one  I  am  not  prepared  even  to  seem  to 
admit,  whether  by  a  change  of  name  or  by  any 
other  act,  that  we  have  but  just  waked  up  and 
found  that  we  are  Catholic. 

"This  great  avowal  is  made,  you  observe,  in 
our  creed  and  not  in  our  name.  And  this  is  well ; 
for  our  creed  we  ourselves  can  determine;  but 
names  grow  up  and  attach  themselves  to  persons 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  323 

and  to  institutions  one  can  hardly  say  how. 
Some  are  misled  by  supposing  that  a  name  is  a 
misnomer  unless  it  be  a  definition.  A  creed  de- 
fines; names  rarely  do.  Definitions  are  exact 
and  exhaustive.  Names  are  generally  rather 
descriptive  of  some  striking  or  interesting  partic- 
ulars in  a  thing.  Call  ourselves  on  paper  what 
we  will,  people  will  call  us  by  the  name  which 
seems  to  fit. 

"We  shall  find  it  an  endless  task  if  changing 
names  on  some  theory  comes  to  be  the  fashion. 
Surely  the  people  whose  names  are  'Black'  and 
'Brown'  and  'Wolf  and  'Hare,'  and  so  on  for- 
ever, will  be  protesting  that  such  names  are  in- 
adequate and  misleading. 

"But  while  the  change  of  the  name  of  our 
Church  does  not  seem  to  me  wise,  what  would 
have  been  opportune  and  very  useful  would  have 
been  a  movement  judiciously  and  quietly  to  en- 
large and  intensify  our  people's  concep- 
tion of  just  what  they  mean  when  they  stand 
up  and  say,  'I  beheve  in  The  Holy  Catholic 
Church,'  and  an  effort  to  correct  the  prevalent 
and  very  misleading  habit  of  applying  the 
word  'Catholic'  without  a  quahfying  ad- 
jective, like  the  adjective  Roman,  to  the  Church 
of  Rome  or  any  other  one  branch  of  the 
Church  of  God;  a  movement  to  make  Christians 
generally  know  and  feel  that  the  Church  is  a  sa- 


LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

cred  organism,  that  as  such  it  may  not  be  tam- 
pered with  by  individual  willfulness,  but  should 
be  honored  and  deferred  to;  an  organism  in 
which  no  part  (whether  calling  itself  Protestant 
or  Catholic,  or  Broad,  or  High,  or  Low,  or  Ro- 
man, or  Greek)  may  safely  say  to  another  part, 
'I  have  no  need  of  you,'  an  organism  which,  be- 
cause it  is  the  body  of  Christ,  is  divinely  endowed 
and  can  communicate  to  proper  persons  in  sac- 
raments and  other  means  of  grace  divine  gifts. 
To  dwell  upon  truths  hke  these  is  work  vital  and 
fruitful  and  peaceable.  Merely  to  attach  the 
word  'Catholic'  to  our  name  is  like  applying  a 
piece  of  court  plaster. 

"To  propose  to  introduce  the  word  Protestant 
de  novo  would  be  one  thing,  to  propose  to  ex- 
punge it  is  another.  For  one  I  am  by  no  means 
prepared,  considering  what  the  popular  under- 
standing of  the  w^ords  'Protestant'  and  'Catholic' 
is,  to  give  up  that  word  'Protestant'  and  supplant 
it  by  the  word  'Catholic'  Protest  has  ever  been 
a  note  of  Christian  truth.  The  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  witnessing  His  good  confession  before 
the  High  Priest  sajdng,  'If  I  have  spoken  evil, 
bear  witness  of  the  evil;  but  if  well,  why  smitest 
thou  me?'  was  protesting.  St.  Paul  withstand- 
ing St.  Peter  to  his  face  and  saying,  'If  thou, 
being  a  Jew,  livest  after  the  manner  of  Gen- 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  325 

tiles,  and  not  as  do  the  Jews,  why  compellest 
thou  the  Gentiles  to  live  as  do  the  Jews?'  Greg- 
ory the  Great  of  Old  Rome  protested  when  John, 
the  Bishop  of  New  Rome,  had  assumed  the  title 
of  Universal  Bishop.  'I  confidently  affirm,' 
Gregory  wrote,  'that  whosoever  calls  himself 
Universal  Priest  is  in  his  pride  going  before 
anti-Christ.'  " 

After  an  historical  consideration  of  the  term 
"Protestantism"  Bishop  Hare  goes  on: 

"To  turn  now  to  a  very  practical  view  of  the 
question.  We  desire,  of  course,  so  to  commend 
the  claims  of  our  Church  to  that  part  of  the 
Christian  world  in  which  our  lot  is  cast  that  there 
will  be  a  'gathering  of  the  people'  to  it.  How 
many  shall  we  draw  to  us  by  the  proposal  to  drop 
the  word  'Protestant'  ?  Our  best  way  of  judging 
the  future  is  by  the  past.  Is  it  not  safe  to  say 
that  for  one  person  who  has  been  drawn  to  our 
Church  because  it  was,  as  he  thought,  what  is 
popularly  understood  by  Catholic,  there  have 
been  ten  drawn  because  it  was  not  that,  but  some- 
thing distinctly  different,  viz.,  what  is  generally 
understood  by  'Protestant,'  and  wliile  the  one 
was  probably  a  worn-out  person,  worn-out  by 
over-refinement,  or  misfortune,  the  ten  probably 
belonged  to  the  vigorous,  fresh  class  who  prac- 
tically control  the  destiny  of  this  land? 


326     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

"Now  let  me  ask,  which  are  the  peoples  to 
whom  Protestantism  in  its  general  principles  and 
drift  has  commended  itself? 

"A  well-known  historian  (Swinton)  has  writ- 
ten: 

*'  'Allowing  for  considerable  exception,  the  na- 
tions of  Teutonic  stock  embraced  the  new  doc- 
trines, while  most  of  the  Latin  race  adhered  to 
the  faith  of  Rome.' 

"Is  the  work  of  our  Church  likely  to  be  with 
peoples  of  the  Teutonic  or  of  the  Latin  stock — 
with  English,  Germans,  Scandinavians,  etc.,  or 
with  Italians,  French  and  Spaniards?  What  is 
the  masterful  influence  in  the  world  just  now? 
Is  it  that  of  English,  Germans,  Scandinavians, 
etc.,  or  of  Italians,  French  and  Spaniards?  If 
we  would  as  a  Church  exert  a  masterful  influ- 
ence, with  whose  mental  movements  shall  we 
throw  in  our  lot — ^with  the  English,  Germans, 
Scandinavians  or  with  Italians,  French  and 
Spaniards? 

"If  we  were  just  establishing  our  Church  in 
this  country  then  the  discussion  of  a  suitable 
name  might  be  opportune.  But  our  Church 
took  up  an  independent  life  in  this  country  long 
years  ago.  It  then  deliberately  and  explicitly 
took  to  itself  the  name  'Protestant  Episcopal.' 
It  has  been  conclusively  shown  in  the  course  of 
the  discussion  which  has  been  going  on  that  this 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  327 

action  was  not  taken  by  accident  or  inadvertence. 
The  name  'Protestant  Episcopal'  we  put  on  the 
title  page  of  our  Prayer  Book.  It  is  part  and 
parcel  of  the  Ratification  of  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer  by  the  bishops,  clergy  and  laity. 
It  is  inwrought  into  our  Constitution  and 
Canons. 

"True,  the  name  is  inadequate — all  names  are, 
because,  as  I  have  said,  names  are  not  definitions. 
But,  while  inadequate,  it  has  a  certain  graphic  fit- 
ness. It  tells  fairly  well  just  what  we  are.  The 
meaning  of  this  name  has  been  well  understood 
by  the  general  public.  Our  Church  is  well 
known  to  bear  a  'double  witness' — that  has  been  a 
favorite  phrase — ^the  'witness'  being  double,  be- 
cause we  witness  against  the  excesses  of  Prot- 
estantism on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  bear  our  witness  against  the  excesses  of 
Rome.  The  word  'Protestant'  in  our  name  is 
quahfied  by  the  word  'Episcopal' — that  is,  our 
name  suggests  that  our  protestation  is  of  that 
kind  which  is  kept  from  aberration  by  the  historic 
Episcopate ;  the  word  'Episcopal'  in  our  name  is 
qualified  by  the  word  'Protestant';  which  fact 
suggests  that  our  Episcopacy  is  not  that  kind 
which  is  autocratic,  or  Roman,  but  that  which  is 
constitutional  and  fraternal,  that  which  is  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  people,  and  that  which  is,  to  use 
the  language  of  the  Lambeth  Quadrilateral,  'lo- 


828     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

cally  adapted  in  the  methods  of  its  administra- 
tion to  the  varying  needs  of  the  nations  and  peo- 
ples called  of  God  into  the  unity  of  His  Church.' 
We  shall  seek  far  before  we  shall  find  what  is,  on 
the  whole  and  all  things  considered,  a  better 
name. 

"Now,  as  to  the  word  'Catholic'  We  must 
stand  by  that  word  in  the  Creed ;  for  there  it  was 
put  in  primitive  days  by  the  Universal  Church. 
There  it  stands  in  a  carefully  prepared  statement 
— such  as  becomes  a  formulary.  There  its  mean- 
ing can  be  accurately  defined.  But  transfer  it 
to  the  people,  and  what  do  the  people  understand 
by  it?  How  do  they  find  it  used  in  most  histo- 
ries, whether  secular  or  ecclesiastical,  in  encyclo- 
paedias, in  newspapers  and  in  common  conversa- 
tion? Vainly  we  protest  that  it  should  not  be 
used  so,  but  in  general  literature  and  in  common 
parlance  it  is  used  as  meaning  Roman  Catholic. 
And  within  our  own  fold  and  within  the  English 
Church  is  it  not  the  fact  that  'Catholic'  is  the  ban- 
ner word  under  which  many  gather  who  would 
huddle  together  in  the  dark,  shut  off  from  mod- 
ern thought,  cherishing  dear  but  exploded  theo- 
ries and  legends,  reviving  antiquated  customs, 
and  seeking  to  impose  them  as  laws  upon  others, 
thus  binding  living  men  of  to-day  in  the  cere- 
ments of  the  dead  past?  Each  word,  'Protest- 
ant' and  'Catholic,'  has  been  a  cover  for  doctrines 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE 

and  practices  which  we  do  not  like  one  whit.  I 
should  be  afraid  of  the  name  'Protestant'  unless 
'Catholic'  were  in  our  creed.  I  should  be  afraid 
of  the  word  'Catholic,'  as  things  are  at  present  in 
the  Christian  world,  were  'Protestant'  stricken 
from  our  name. 

"The  whole  movement  to  change  the  name  of 
the  Church  seems  to  me  to  be  open  to  the  charge 
of  being  pretentious,  and  to  be  away  from  the 
people,  who  like  acts  and  not  words ;  real  success 
and  not  assertion  that  one  has  a  right  to  it.  It 
is  a  case  where,  as  often,  confidence  in  a  cause  has 
run  on  into  what  is  a  very  different  thing, 
namely,  self-conceit.  Always  it  is  true  that  by 
self-forgetfuhiess  and  real  effective  work,  not 
by  self -consciousness  and  pretentious  assertions, 
general  confidence  is  won  and  lasting  good  re- 
sults are  achieved.  I  fear  that  we  are  'puffed 
up'  because  of  our  ecclesiastical  lineage  and 
'have  not  rather  mourned'  because  of  our  prac- 
tical shortcomings.  Our  supreme  danger  is  self- 
satisfaction  ;  the  danger  of  looking  upon  our  own 
things  and  not  upon  the  things  of  others.  Seen 
by  themselves,  our  own  things  seem  to  have  a 
worth  which,  if  seen  in  relation  to  the  things  of 
another,  they  would  not  have.  In  missionary 
spirit,  in  the  size  of  our  foreign  force,  in  our 
achievements  in  heathen  lands,  in  our  power  to 
reach  men  here  in  America,   in  our    Sunday- 


330     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

school  work,  there  are  several  bodies  which  far 
excel  us. 

"One  of  the  thoughtful  and  broad-minded 
English  divines  has  written: 

"  *How  many  rehgious  orders  and  societies 
have  lived  upon  the  reputation  of  the  past,  and 
appeared  to  fancy  that  the  achievements  of  their 
founders — ^the  "merits  of  the  fathers" — would 
justify  the  apathy  and  carelessness  of  those  who 
had  inherited  an  honorable  name?  Indeed,  to 
whatever  we  are  elect,  whether  national  or  eccle- 
siastical, or  personal  privileges,  the  temptation 
dogs  us  to  rest  on  our  inherited  merits  and  to 
have  no  open  ear  to  the  guiding  voice  of  God, 
as  it  calls  us  to  fresh  ventures  and  renewed  sac- 
rifices, like  those  w^hich  laid  the  basis  of  the  posi- 
tion of  which  we  now  make  our  empty  and  inso- 
lent boast.  But  thus  to  evade  the  uncomfort- 
able requirements  of  the  present  by  an  appeal  to 
the  achievements  of  the  past,  whether  it  is  the 
past  of  the  Cathohc  tradition  or  the  Reformation 
settlement,  is  to  expose  oui'selves  mevitably  to 
divine  condemnation.' 

"In  a  word,  has  not  the  proposal  to  change 
the  name  of  the  Church  got  us  quite  off  the 
track  ?  What  we  need  to  give  heed  to  is  not  our 
name,  but  warm  conviction  of  simple  and  funda- 
mental truth,  personal  character  and  official 
competency.     Those  ministers  who  have  these 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  331 

qualifications  will  always  have  a  hearing  and  a 
following.  These  are  the  quahfications  which 
the  American  people  supremely  value  and  in  this 
they  have  the  mind  of  God.  The  best  way  to 
gain  a  better  name  is  to  possess  and  show  more 
of  the  spirit  and  more  of  the  work  which  will  en- 
title us  to  be  called  by  a  better  name.  Then  it 
will  come  to  us  without  our  seeking  for  or 
seizing  it.  Call  ourselves  what  we  will,  a 
large  part  of  what  constitutes  catholicity  will 
be  lacking  until  our  richly-endowxd  fellow- 
Christians,  clerical  and  lay,  who  are  now  sep- 
arated from  us  and  living  their  lives  and  doing 
their  work  in  other  Christian  bodies,  unite  their 
personalities  and  their  lives  and  their  work  with 
ours.  For  myself  I  deeply  regret  that  the 
question  of  change  in  the  name  of  our  branch  of 
the  Church  was  ever  brought  up.  Just  as  there 
were  some  signs  of  a  growing  tolerance  of  differ- 
ence of  opinion  and  of  union  in  practical  work 
and  of  a  growing  appreciation  of  our  ecclesias- 
tical position  on  the  part  of  other  Clmstian  bod- 
ies, this  proposition  appears  and  will  result,  I 
fear,  in  no  good.  Provoking  Christians  on  both 
sides  of  us,  we  may  find  ourselves  ground  be- 
tween the  upper  and  nether  millstone.  Accord- 
ing to  a  Greek  m\i:h,  at  the  marriage  of  Thetis 
and  Peleus,  when  all  the  gods  and  goddesses 
were  gathered  together.  Discord  threw  on  the  ta- 


S32     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

ble  a  golden  apple  'For  the  Fairest.'  Of  course 
there  were  several  claimants.  No  decision  could 
please  all.  The  golden  apple  became  a  cause 
of  envy  and  contention  and  out  of  the  strife 
sprang  eventually  the  Trojan  War  and  the  de- 
struction of  Troy.  I  cannot  but  fear  that  the 
word  'Catholic'  and  the  proposal  to  change  the 
name  of  the  Church  will  prove  our  'Apple  of 
Discord.'  The  successful  claimant  for  the  prize 
will  find  out  that  it  has  only  led  to  envy  and  con- 
tention— en\y  from  those  ^\ithout,  contention 
among  those  within  the  Church. 

"The  following  table  [with  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  holding  the  ninth  place  in  fig- 
ures which  need  not  be  reprinted  here]  shows  the 
twelve  largest  religious  bodies  and  their  gains, 
according  to  the  last  census.  Who  of  us  can 
peruse  it  and  think  of  the  millions  who  are  out- 
side of  our  branch  of  the  Church  and  yet  revere 
that  holy  name  whereby  we  are  called,  and  not  re- 
solve, 'I  shall  go  softly  all  my  years'  ?" 

The  question  of  true  Catholicism  came  up 
again  near  the  very  end  of  Bishop  Hare's  life. 
In  the  last  of  all  his  Convocation  Addresses 
(1908),  he  dealt  as  follows  with  the  much-dis- 
cussed "Canon  19": 

"An  old  canon  provides  as  is  printed  below  in 
Roman    letters.     The    General    Convention    of 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  333 

1907  added  to  this  old  canon  the  part  printed  in 
itahcs : 

"  'No  minister  in  charge  of  any  congregation 
of  this  Church,  or  in  case  of  vacancy  or  absence, 
no  church-wardens,  vestrymen,  or  trustees  of  the 
congregation,  shall  permit  any  person  to  offici- 
ate therein,  without  sufficient  evidence  of  his  be- 
ing duly  Hcensed  or  ordained  to  minister  in  tliis 
Church;  provided  that  nothing  herein  shall  be 
so  construed  as  to  forbid  communicants  of  the 
Church  to  act  as  Lay  Readers ;  or  to  prevent  the 
Bishop  of  any  Diocese  or  Missionary  District 
from  giving  permission  to  Christian  Men,  who 
are  not  Ministers  of  this  Church,  to  make  ad- 
dresses in  the  Church,  on  special  occasions/ 

"Apparently  nothing  could  be  more  harmless 
than  this  amendment ;  but  some  of  our  clergy,  so 
far  as  I  have  learned  about  sixteen  out  of  our 
5,000,  have  made  the  addition  to  Canon  19  the 
occasion  of  a  secession  to  the  Roman  Branch  of 
the  Church. 

"The  question  arises,  had  they  not,  long  before 
Canon  19  was  amended,  turned  face  about  from 
the  direction  taken  at  the  Reformation  by  our 
branch  of  the  Catholic  Church,  as  much  so  as  if 
in  our  national  life  they  had  resolved  to  bring 
about  re-submission  to  the  British  Crown?  Had 
they  not  lost  to  such  a  degree  sympathy  with  the 
general  spirit  and  movement  of  the  Prayer  Book 


334     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

that  withdrawal  from  our  ministry  had  come  to 
be  their  only  honorable  course?  Were  they  not 
prepared  for  an  exodus?  The  passage  of  Canon 
19  simply  said,  'Ready,  one,  two,  three,'  and  off 
they  'vvent.  Such  secessions  are  the  penalty  our 
Church  pays  for  a  broad  and  generous  spirit. 

"It  professes  to  be,  and  tries  to  be,  a  part  of 
the  Holy  Catholic  Church  and  not  a  sect.  It 
has  not  broken  away  from  the  universal  Church 
in  order  to  follow  some  particular  leader.  The 
road  followed  by  any  one  man  is  not  sufficiently 
wide  for  it;  consequently  its  ranges  of  thought 
and  feeling  cover  a  large  expanse.  It  results 
inevitably  that  some  of  its  parts  must  be  very  dis- 
tant from  the  centre  and  that  it  must  have  a 
long  line  of  edges.  It  is  at  these  edges  that  other 
systems  nibble.  It  is  from  these  edges  that 
pieces  break  off. 

"The  practical  lesson  is,  *Keep  away  from  the 
edges.  Let  us  all  draw  together  toward  the  cen- 
tre.' Let  us  fear  above  all  things  a  split  in  the 
middle.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  decision 
of  the  Court  of  Appeal  in  a  case  which  arose  in 
the  Diocese  of  Western  New  York  some  years 
ago,  gave  rise  then  to  some  defection  on  the 
part  of  brethren  who  occupied  one  extreme  of 
theological  opinion.  Now,  the  amendment  to 
Canon  19  has  given  rise  to  defection  on  the  part 
of  some  brethren  who  were  at  the  other  extreme. 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  335 

Alas,  one  cannot  sacrifice  our  generosity.  Con- 
sidering the  provocation  which  has  sometimes  in 
the  past  been  given  to  division;  considering  the 
ungenerous  and  intolerant  spirit  of  the  age  when 
most  of  our  divisions  took  their  rise,  is  it  not  our 
sacred  duty  now  to  try  to  be  reasonable,  consid- 
erate and  generous  towards  all  Christian  people? 
Green  in  his  history  of  the  English  people,  says 
of  the  spirit  which  at  one  time  ruled  the  Church, 
*The  two  parties  in  the  Church,  the  Church  party 
on  the  one  hand  and  the  Nonconformist  party 
on  the  other,  each  threw  the  blame  on  their  oppo- 
nents; the  one  reprobated  the  schismatic  temper 
of  the  Nonconformists,  the  other  declaimed 
against  the  perjury  and  tyranny  of  the  hier- 
archy, but  neither  confessed  their  own  offenses.' 
Shall  we  go  on  forever  repeating  this  folly? 
Shall  we  be  puffed  up  and  not  rather  mourn?" 

In  October,  1903,  there  was  held  in  Washing- 
ton a  missionary  conference  of  the  Bishops  of 
the  Church  of  England  in  Canada  and  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United 
States.  Here  Bishop  Hare  made  two  notable 
addresses,  one  on  IMethods  of  Deahng  with  the 
Indian  Races,  the  other  on  The  Cares  and  Re- 
sponsibilities of  the  Bishop  as  a  Missionary 
Leader.  In  each  he  spoke  from  the  sad  and 
joyful    depths    of    personal    experience.     Two 


336     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

passages  from  the  first  address  will  suffice: 
"Let  me  say  that  Indian  Missions  call  for  the 
hardest  kind  of  work  and  the  hardest  kind  of 
sense.  It  will  not  be  done  by  people  who  think 
that  every  Indian  girl  is  a  Pocahontas.  The 
work  must  be  thoroughly  human  and  sympa- 
thetic; it  must  make  allowances;  it  must  be  ap- 
preciative of  anj^  good  in  the  Indians :  but  the  In- 
dian must  not  be  seen  as  in  a  mirage — though 
mirages  be  common  in  the  desert  which  he  fre- 
quents— nor  uplifted  from  the  ordinary  run  of 
things  and  'floating  vague  in  the  ether.'  I  am, 
perhaps,  not  as  confident  in  my  opinions  regard- 
ing the  Indians  as  I  was  as  a  novice  thirty  years 
ago,  but  this  I  am  sure  of,  the  work  calls  for  hard 
work  and  hard  sense.  I  have  seen  nothing  to 
lead  me  to  think  [here  he  reverts  almost  to  the 
very  words  of  an  early  opinion]  that  there  is  any- 
thing in  the  Indian  problem  to  drive  us  to  mere 
sentimentality,  to  quackery,  or  to  despair.  It 
^dll  find  its  solution,  under  the  favor  of  God,  in 
the  faithful  execution  of  the  powers  committed 
by  God  to  the  ci\dl  government,  and  in  a  com- 
mon-sense ministration  of  the  offices  and  the  gra- 
cious gifts  deposited  \\dth  His  Church.  .  .  . 
Now,  speaking  more  broadly,  let  aU  methods  be 
inspired  and  pervaded  by  a  generous  human 
spirit.  In  other  words,  let  there  be  identifica- 
tion with  the  subjects  of  our  effort.     This  is  an 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  337 

essential  of  Christian  work  always,  eveiywhere, 
and  among  all  classes.  The  fundamental  of  our 
Christian  faith  is  the  identification  of  the  Son  of 
God  with  the  subjects  of  His  interest.  'He  took 
manhood  into  God,'  and  if  He  did  this  in  His 
person  He  did  it  also  in  His  life.  He  put  Him- 
self on  a  level  with  the  woman  of  Samaria,  iden- 
tified Himself  with  her  by  asking  a  favor, 
'Give  me  to  drink,'  before  He  undertook  to  touch 
the  sore  place  in  her  heart.  It  was  this  Christ 
living  in  him  that  made  St.  Paul  identify  himself 
with  the  people  of  Lycaonia  and  say,  'He  gave 
us  rain  from  heaven,  and  fruitful  seasons,  filling 
our  hearts  with  food  and  gladness.'  Our  reli- 
gion is  a  ladder  whose  top,  to  be  sure,  reaches 
unto  heaven ;  but  only  as  we  enable  men  to  see  it 
set  up  on  earth  right  alongside  them,  as  God 
placed  the  ladder  alongside  Jacob  in  his  vision, 
will  men  realize  that  our  religion  is  for  each  one 
the  gate  of  heaven.  A  well-meaning  tract  dis- 
tributer once  told  me  of  his  discomfitiire  by  rea- 
son of  failure  to  practice  identification.  As  he 
passed  along  through  the  market  he  handed  a 
butcher  a  tract.  The  butcher  called  after  him, 
'Say,  mister,  have  you  read  it  yourself?'  And  as 
he  had  not  read  it  he  beat  a  quick  retreat. 

"So  far  as  my  observation  goes,  nothing  has 
more  marred  and  vitiated  missionary  enterprise 
both  at  home  and  abroad  than  lack  of  just  this 


338     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

fellow-feeling  with  the  subjects  of  missionary 
efforts — lack  of  ability  to  appreciate  and  ready 
power  to  do  whatever  is  required  by  circum- 
stances. This  is  the  sj^ecial  infomity  of  our  An- 
glo-Saxon stock.  There  is  a  certain  obtuseness 
which  makes  us  fail  to  feel  the  situation.  There 
is  a  proud  unwillingness  to  put  ourselves  in  the 
other  man's  place  and  to  see  with  his  eyes,  yea, 
a  haughty  denial  that  any  sentiment  can  be  sa- 
cred unless  it  be  our  sentiment;  that  anything 
can  be  a  real  conviction  and  have  any  power  with 
another  unless  it  be  our  conviction  and  have 
power  with  us.  The  undertaking  to  open  a 
man's  eyes  to  the  fact  that  he  and  all  whom  he 
loves  and  reverences  most  have  been  in  error,  to 
turn  a  man  from  modes  of  thought  and  habits 
of  action  which  are  dear  to  him,  must  always  be 
a  delicate  task.  It  is  hard  to  save  it  from  being 
an  exasperating  process.  The  personality  of  the 
missionary  is  often  unattractive  to  a  man  of  dif- 
ferent race.  The  foreigner,  though  an  expert 
linguist,  rarely  appreciates  the  delicate  turns  of 
expression  and  other  rhetorical  processes  by 
which  speech  is  saved  from  rudeness,  and  given 
the  form  of  delicate  suggestiveness  and  not  of 
absolute  assertion.  And  yet  we  are  disposed  to 
stand  oif  as  their  critics  from  the  people  whom 
we  are  called  to  serve,  and  to  discuss  their  racial 
and  natural  and  personal  peculiarities  in  letters 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  339 

to  newspapers  and  magazines.  Even  our  peti- 
tions for  them  in  intercessory  prayer  sometimes 
take  on  a  condescending  and  patronizing  air, 
which  is  particularly  oiFensive  when  it  is  applied 
to  the  rulers  of  the  foreign  land  where  the  mis- 
sionaries are  m  a  certain  sense  guests,  lowering 
the  rulers  before  their  own  people  by  praying 
publicly  for  them  that  they  may  be  turned  from 
darkness  unto  light  and  from  the  power  of  Satan 
unto  God.  Lecky,  in  his  book,  The  Map  of 
Life,  has  shown  that  the  event  which  he  terms 
'the  awful  mutiny'  in  India,  which  for  a  time 
shook  the  Enghsh  power  there  to  its  very  foun- 
dation, took  its  rise  in  just  this  defect.  'It 
was  simply  a  glaring  instance  of  indifference, 
ignorance,  and  incapacitj^  too  often  shown  by 
British  administrators  in  dealing  with  beliefs 
and  types  of  character  wholly  unlike  their 
ow^n.' 

"Cow's  fat  and  lard  were  used  in  the  lubri- 
cating mixture  with  which  the  cartridges  issued 
to  the  Sepoy  soldiers  were  smeared,  'one  of  these 
ingredients  being  utterly  impure  in  the  eyes  of 
the  Hindoo,  and  the  other  in  the  eyes  of  the  JNIus- 
sulman.  To  bite  these  cartridges  would  destroy 
the  caste  of  the  Hindoo,  and  carry  with  it  the 
loss  of  everything  that  was  most  dear  and  most 
sacred  to  him  both  in  this  world  and  in  the  next. 
In  the  eyes  of  both  JNIoslem  and  Hindoo  it  was 


340     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

the  gravest  and  most  irreparable  of  crimes,  de- 
stroying all  hopes  in  a  future  world,  and  yet  this 
crime,  in  their  belief,  was  imposed  upon  them  as  a 
matter  of  military  duty  by  their  officers.'  What 
had  seemed  to  be  the  unalterable  devotion  of  the 
Sepoy  regiments  gave  way  under  this  strain,  and 
they  retaliated  in  the  most  horrible  excesses. 

"In  missionary  annals  the  storj'-  is  famous  of 
Corman,  the  first  missionary  Bishop  sent  to  the 
Northumbrian  English.  Harsh  and  unsympa- 
thetic, he  met  with  no  success,  and  returned  in  dis- 
appointment to  his  monastery  and  reported  the 
English  as  stubborn  and  barbarous.  'Hard  with 
hard  makes  no  w^all,'  says  Fuller  quaintly, 
quoting  the  old  proverb,  'and  no  wonder  if  the 
spiritual  building  went  on  no  better,  wherein  the 
austerity  and  harshness  of  the  pastor  met  the  ig- 
norance and  sturdiness  of  the  people.'  He  was 
succeeded  by  Aiden,  a  man  of  very  sympathetic 
spirit.  He  had  the  art  of  condescending  to  babes 
and  feeding  them  with  milk.  He  threw  himself 
in  with  the  people.  He  hated  display  and  gen- 
erally traveled  on  foot  and  gave  himself  to  house- 
to-house  visitation.  A  humble  church  of  split 
oak,  thatched  with  coarse  grass,  satisfied  his  ambi- 
tion at  first.  He  gathered  the  boys  of  the  Eng- 
lish about  him  that  he  might  train  them  to  be 
evangelists  to  their  own  people.  No  wonder  he 
is  said  to  have  possessed  a  'singular  charm  of 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  341 

manner  and  address,  wliich  first  won  his  hearers 
and  then  incited  them  to  an  imitation  of  his  own 
virtues.' 

"For  every  reason  the  missionarj^  should  drive 
himself  to  identify  himself  with  the  people  to 
whom  he  is  sent,  and  avoid  presenting  his  partic- 
ular, perhaps  crude,  views  to  the  heathen  in  such 
a  way  that  they  seem  to  them  as  'the  cow's  fat 
and  lard'  seemed  to  the  ^lussulman  and  Sepoy. 

"As  part  of  his  identification  with  his  people 
the  missionary  should  be  their  confidant  on  any 
subject  pertaining  to  their  personal  or  material 
welfare,  to  their  relation  to  each  other,  or  their 
relation  to  the  authorities,  so  far  as  any  of  the 
people  may  choose  to  call  him  to  their  confidence 
— being  very  careful,  however,  that  he  is  not  so 
ready  to  receive  confidences  as  to  come  to  be  re- 
garded as  a  sort  of  common  sewer  into  which  any 
one  may  dump  his  filth,  nor  so  ready  to  give  cre- 
dence to  complaints  and  communicate  them  to 
others  as  to  make  himself  a  nuisance.  At  the 
same  time,  missionaries  should  confine  themselves 
as  much  as  possible  to  their  own  calling  and  their 
own  sphere  of  work,  and  not  consider  themselves 
inspectors  of  government  officials  among  the  In- 
dians, any  more  than  a  good  citizen,  occupying 
the  office  of  a  clergj^man  among  the  whites, 
should  consider  himself  a  universal  censor  morum 
and  a  judge  of  civil  officials  there.     He  should 


342     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

bear  in  mind  that  honor  and  obedience  are  due 
to  government  officials  because  of  their  office,  and 
that  he  can  do  no  more  injurious  work  than  to 
breed  a  spirit  of  discontent  and  sedition ;  and  re- 
member also  this  fact,  that  any  one  who  stands 
off  and  thinks  how  a  work  should  be  done  will  al- 
ways be  a  mere  critic  and  a  hypercritic.  We  al- 
ways think  that  we  can  do  another  man's  work 
better  than  he  does  it.  There  is  a  deal  of  wisdom 
in  the  sarcasm,  'Old  maids'  children  are  always 
well  brought  up.'  " 

In  sending  a  printed  copy  of  the  second  ad- 
dress to  Dr.  Lloyd,  General  Secretary  of  the 
Board  of  Missions,  Bishop  Hare  ^\Tote,  "My 
address  on  'The  Cares  and  Responsibilities,'  etc., 
was  my  last  word  on  that  general  subject.  Be- 
neath the  humor  and  irony  and  sarcasm  of  my 
words  was  the  cry  of  a  womided  heart — a  cry 
that  our  Church  does  not  produce  men  to  do  the 
w^ork  which  needs  to  be  done."  Near  the  begin- 
ning of  the  address  he  declared,  "The  Bishop 
should  be  no  recluse,  much  less  a  seeker  of  his  ease 
and  a  slave  of  home  comforts ;  he  should  be  well 
known  in  the  weak  places  and  in  the  high  places 
of  the  field;  but  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the 
missionary  battle  is  not  going  on  unless  the 
Bishop  is  seen  always  ner^^ously  hurrying  from 
mission  to  mission.     At  the  crisis  of  one  of  the 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  34-3 

great  battles  of  the  Franco-Prussian  War,  the 
king  of  Prussia's  anxiety  reached  such  a  height 
that  Bismarck  left  him  and  went  to  the  liilltop 
where  Von  IMoltke  stood,  to  inquire.  He  found 
the  great  general  carefully  selecting  a  cigar  from 
a  box.  Bismarck  returned  and  said,  'Youi'  ]Maj- 
esty,  I  think  all  is  going  on  well.  He  picks  his 
cigars.'  Even  when  so  doing,  however.  Von 
Moltke  was  the  leader"  Bishop  Hare  goes  on 
to  consider  such  questions  as  those  of  investments, 
of  "competing  bodies,"  of  Church  schools  and 
other  institutions,  and  of  raising  money.  Nearly 
all  of  the  second  half  of  the  address  is  given  to 
the  vital  question  of  workers  in  the  missionary 
field,  and  it  may  well  stand  as  the  parting  utter- 
ance of  Bishop  Hare  on  the  subject  of  missions 
in  general: 

"But  I  have  left  to  the  last  'the  care  and  re- 
sponsibility' which  is  by  all  odds  the  first  and 
greatest,  viz.,  the  care  and  responsibilit}"  of  find- 
ing proper  field  officers,  i.  e.,  IMissionaries.  Ask 
any  Bishop  of  his  chiefest  need  and  he  will  an- 
swer, men,  I  should  suggest  as  a  proper  em- 
blem for  a  Bishop's  seal,  an  etching  of  Diogenes, 
walking  in  broad  dayhght  with  a  lantern  and 
explaining  in  sarcastic  tone  that  he  is  looking  for 
a  man.  If  I  speak  with  too  much  warmth  on  this 
part  of  my  subject  ascribe  it  to  personal  feeling. 
I  am  so  happy  in  the  missionaries  whom  I  have 


844     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

in  South  Dakota  that  I  am  vexed  that  I  cannot 
get  more  hke-minded.  And  if  I  make  some  se- 
vere strictures  on  the  ministrj'-  I  would  not  for- 
get that  never  in  all  the  years  in  which  I  have 
known  the  missionary  work  of  the  Church,  have 
the  numbers,  the  character,  and  the  abihty  of  our 
missionary  force  been  so  creditable  as  they  are 
to-day.  Let  me  also  say  in  mere  justice  to  the 
clergy  that  theirs  is  often  a  hard  lot.  This  re- 
sults from  the  nature  of  the  field.  Whether  we 
look  at  the  vast  heathen  world,  or  at  the  multi- 
tude of  blacks  in  our  own  land,  or  at  the  millions 
of  w^hite  people  scattered  in  tens  of  thousands  of 
towns  and  villages  which  dot  the  newer  parts  of 
our  national  domain,  our  field  is  a  missionary 
field;  that  is,  a  field  which  is  not  so  much  inviting 
as  needy ;  a  field  which  does  not  offer  comfortable 
rectories,  nor  parish  buildings  up-to-date,  nor 
strong  congregations  which  will  carry  their  cler- 
gyman on  their  shoulders.  Why  in  the  name  of 
common  sense  should  it  be  supposed,  as  it  so  often 
is,  that  the  first  product  of  a  newly  opened  coun- 
try is  a  cozy  parish?  Or  that  new  settlers  are  all 
athirst  for  God  and  His  Gospel?  Why  should 
it  be  expected  that  the  people  in  our  new  settle- 
ments will  build  a  church,  stir  up  their  hearts  to 
seek  after  God,  and  then  send  their  messengers 
out  to  seek  for  some  minister  who  will  be 
willing  to  preside  over  the  work  which  they  have 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  345 

done?  Beyond  all  question  the  requirements  are 
exacting.  A  new  town  is  made  up  of  very 
heterogeneous  people,  odds  and  ends,  thrown  to- 
gether from  different  parts  of  the  comitry  with- 
out any  common  bond.  Do  what  you  will, 
people  sometimes  will  not  be  pleased.  They  are 
sometimes  fault-finding,  unsympathetic,  and  ex- 
acting. They  ex^^ect  their  clergyman  to  fill 
their  church,  and  yet  they  themselves  do  what 
they  can  to  keep  it  empty  by  habitually  staying 
away  from  church,  or  attending  only  when  they 
please.  They  demand  of  him  that  he  shall  be 
alert,  while  they  themselves  are  apathetic.  They 
fail  to  pay  their  church  dues  and  so  create  a 
deficit,  and  j^et  they  are  vexed  that  the  cry  of  a 
deficit  should  be  raised  so  often.  They  wait  to 
see  whether  all  will  like  the  new  minister,  while 
they  know  verj^  well  they  do  not  at  all  like  one 
another.  To  add  to  the  difficulties  it  sometimes 
happens  that  the  missionary  must  be  required  to 
hold  to  his  post  just  because  the  moneyed  people 
of  the  place  will  not  support  him,  or  because 
some  influential  people  do  not  want  him — the 
divorce  traffic  or  the  rum  traffic,  the  dominating 
self-will  of  a  certain  person  may  wish  to  get  rid 
of  him  that  they  may  get  religion  in  their  own 
control.  There,  of  course,  the  Church  should 
bravely  witness  for  Christ.  There  the  reign  of 
righteousness  must  be  maintained,  and  upon  the 


346     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

clergj^man  must  come  the  brunt  of  the  battle. 
Oh,  how  my  heart  goes  out  to  the  clergy  in  the 
trials  and  hardships  which  their  calling  often 
brings  upon  them.  Let  me  say  to  these  dear 
brethren,  whatever  be  the  cares  and  responsibil- 
ities of  the  missionary  in  whichsoever  order — 
diaconate,  presbyterate,  episcopate — ^w^hatever 
be  the  meagerness  of  earthly  reward,  however 
lowly,  however  surly,  however  unreasonable  be 
the  people  whom  we  are  called  to  serve ;  however 
forbidding  the  skies  and  the  climate,  let  us  stand 
in  our  lot  and  try  always  to  learn  to  say :  'None 
of  these  things  move  me.  Neither  count  I  my 
life  dear  unto  myself;  if  only  I  may  finish  my 
course  with  joy  and  the  ministry  which  I  have 
received  of  the  Lord  Jesus.' 

"Such  is  the  nature  of  a  large  part  of  the 
Church's  field.  And  it  must  have  become  mani- 
fest as  I  have  proceeded  that  the  missionary  field 
calls  for  the  service  of  the  sons  of  the  Church 
not  because  it  is,  in  a  worldly  point  of  view,  an 
attractive  field,  not  because  it  promises  large  and 
appreciative  congregations,  nor  even  because  the 
work  in  the  missionary  field  is  necessarily  more 
important  than  any  other;  but,  first,  because  it 
offers  "work  that  needs  to  he  done,  that  is,  work 
that  somebody  must  do — ^there  are  human  beings 
in  it,  good,  careless,  wicked,  stricken,  who  must 
respectively  be  encouraged,  awakened,  converted, 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  347 

comforted.  Secondly,  because  in  the  missionary 
iields  tilings  are  in  their  beginning  and  presimi- 
ably  formative.  Influence  for  good  at  such  a 
period  is  basal  and  far  reaching.  Thirdly,  be- 
cause the  eyes  of  many  in  the  missionary  field 
have  not  yet  had  a  chance  to  salute  the  Day- 
spring  on  high,  who  gives  light  to  them  that  sit 
in  darkness  and  guides  the  feet  into  the  path 
of  peace. 

"Now  what  kind  of  field  officers,  i.  e.,  mis- 
sionaries, does  the  missionary  field  demand? 

"jManifestly  men  who  realize  that  the  work  of 
the  ministry  is  not  to  wait  to  be  sought,  but  to 
seek  for  Christ's  sheep  that  are  dispersed  abroad, 
and  for  His  children  who  are  swallowed  up  in 
this  wicked  world;  ministers  who  are  ready,  if 
need  be,  to  do  all  the  work  at  first  themselves, 
and  to  stand,  to  speak  figuratively,  at  their  church 
doors  on  Sunday  morning  proclaiming,  'My 
oxen  and  my  fatlings  are  killed  and  all  tilings 
are  ready.     Come  unto  the  marriage.' 

"Next,  the  Church  manifestly  needs  for  a  large 
part  of  her  work  men  who  are  free — men  who 
are  free  to  be  much  away  from  home  holding 
services  in  all  sorts  of  towns  and  villages  and  in 
all  sorts  of  places ;  men  who  are  free  to  go  where 
they  are  needed ;  men  who  are  free  to  live  where 
they  are  needed;  men  who  are  free,  too,  to  say 
what  is  needed.     These  are  days  when  unpala- 


34.8     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

table  truths  need  to  be  spoken  to  several  differ- 
ent classes — to  men  and  women  who  flout  the 
moral  law  under  cover  of  religion;  and  to  capi- 
talists on  the  one  hand  and  employes  on  the  other 
who  fret  under  the  restraints  of  right  and  of 
duty  to  each  other. 

"Next,  the  conditions  demand  supple  men.  I 
mean  men  who  have  manifoldness,  flexibility  and 
adjustableness.  A  man  of  only  one  gift  and 
only  one  power  is  out  of  place  in  the  new  mission- 
ary field.  Division  of  labor  cannot  be  accom- 
plished to  any  great  extent  there,  and  hence 
those  who  work  for  Christ  will,  of  course,  be 
called  upon  to  perform  not  only  one,  but  many 
functions  of  the  body  of  Christ.  A  man  who 
is  only  a  preacher,  or  only  a  pastor,  or  only  a 
church  builder,  or  only  a  student,  camiot  meet 
the  need.  And  who  should  be  flexible  and  ad- 
justable if  not  the  ministers  of  Christ,  that  is, 
ministers  of  the  Anointed  One?  We  ministers 
have  not  only  received  the  holy  oil  of  confirma- 
tion, which  should  make  us,  as  oil  makes  leather, 
supple  and  flexible;  but  we  have  been  especially 
trained  for  Holy  Orders,  and  have  received  at 
our  ordination  at  least  the  promise  and  the  ear- 
nest of  all  gifts  which  we  can  possibly  need  in 
our  manifold  work. 

"Lastly,  men  are  needed  who  have  acute  spir- 
itual ears;  men  who  can  say,  'Mine  ears  hast 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  349 

Thou  opened;'  men  who  scorn  the  common  no- 
tion that  our  Lord,  though  He  is  the  same 
yesterday,  to-day  and  forever,  said  only  for  once 
and  for  one  man,  'Sell  all  that  thou  hast  and 
come  and  follow  Me';  men  who  hear  that  same 
command  repeated  now  and  repeated  with  all  the 
discriminating,  penetrating  power  of  a  sharp, 
two-edged  sword. 

"We  have  seen  the  character  of  our  missionary 
field,  we  have  seen  the  kind  of  laborer  needed, 
and  we  must  ask  now,  What  about  the  supply? 
I  would  by  no  means  depreciate  parish  work  and 
all  that  settled  home  life  which  is  connected  with 
it.  The  Church  would  have  httle  stabiHty  with- 
out them,  little  edification,  little  reserve  force. 
Parishes  are  the  Church's  dynamos.  But,  con- 
sidering the  character  of  our  field  and  the  kind 
of  leaders  needed,  does  not  the  stream  of  clerical 
life  run  too  much  one  way,  too  much  towards 
married  life,  parish  life  and  rectories?  The 
process  makes  one  recall  scenes  in  the  iron  re- 
gions where  molten  iron  is  seen  running  into  the 
molds  from  a  smelting  furnace  and  all  of  it  tak- 
ing there  fixed  hard  shape,  the  shape  called  pig 
iron.  Once  rectors  of  well-to-do  parishes  our 
young  ministers  never  can  be  anything  else. 
At  least  they  think  so.  But,  oh,  the  folly  of 
young  ministers  expecting  that  all  may  be  rec- 
tors   of   well-to-do   parishes!     The   number    of 


350     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

well-to-do  parishes  (to  use  the  word  in  a  worldly- 
sense),  stands  to  the  number  of  seekers  for  them 
as  one  stands  to  five.  And  oh,  the  disappoint- 
ment and  unhappiness  wliich  the  expectation  of 
getting  a  well-to-do  parish  brings!  If  five  men 
try  each  to  get  a  bite  of  one  cherry,  four  at  least 
are  sure  to  be  disappointed.  And  what  is  the 
condition  of  things  in  other  callings?  Does 
every  young  doctor  count  upon  an  ofiice  on  5th 
Avenue  in  New  York?  Or  every  young  lawyer 
an  office  within  a  few  blocks  of  Wall  Street? 
Life  for  most  men  is  hard.  It  is  so  hard  that  if 
only  one  side  of  it  were  looked  at,  who  would  be 
a  father  or  a  mother,  a  husband  or  a  wife? 
Nay,  who  would  ever  have  chosen  to  be  born? 
Why  should  the  clergy  expect  easy  places?  Is 
it  ease  that  makes  men  useful  or  happy?  Let 
me  point  out  to  young  ministers  on  the  contrary 
the  unspeakably  miserable  results  of  expectation 
that  it  does.  You  will  so  habituate  yourselves 
to  the  conveniences  of  life,  to  external  appliances 
and  contrivances  such  as  rectories,  parish  houses, 
etc.,  that  you  will  be,  to  use  the  Apostle's  phrase, 
'entangled  with  the  affairs  of  this  life.'  You 
will  be  slaves  to  your  surroundings  and  posses- 
sions and  therefore  exceedingly  limited  in  the 
sphere  of  work  which  you  will  feel  you  can  ac- 
cept. Result  1:  you  will  find  yourself  out  of 
employment.     Result  2:  you  will  become  mere 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  351 

driftwood.  Result  3:  worse  than  that,  you  will 
become  driftwood  which  has  ceased  to  drift  and 
is  beached  and  dried  and  rotting.  Spiritual 
vigor,  you  will  have  none — enthusiasm,  none — 
love  for  your  work,  none — accent  of  conviction 
when  you  preach,  none — you  w411  be  a  weariness 
to  the  laity  and  a  mortification  to  your  clerical 
brethren. 

"Have  I  spoken  too  plainly?  I  am  sure  I 
have  said  many  unpalatable  w^ords,  but  I  trust 
none  which  are  uncharitable  or  uncalled  for. 
Self-love  would  lead  us  not  to  acknowledge  any 
of  our  defects.  Apathy  would  lead  us  to  ignore 
them.  Pride  would  lead  us  to  prevent  their  be- 
ing known.  'Tell  it  not  in  Gath,  mention  it  not 
in  the  streets  of  Askelon.'  Nevertheless,  I  have 
described  as  faithfully  as  I  know  how  the  ex- 
isting state  of  things.  Why  not  go  to  work  and 
try  to  raise  up  men  who  can  and  will  face  it  and 
meet  it  ? 

"Of  course  a  new  point  of  view  and  a  new 
spirit  are  our  chief  est  need;  but  it  would  greatly 
ease  the  painful  situation  if  the  Church  had  what 
might  be  called  a  clearing-house.  Banks  have 
their  clearing-house  where  any  bank  which  has 
a  check  drawn  on  another  bank  may  aiTange  for 
its  reaching  its  proper  destination  and  being 
honored,  and  so  would  it  not  be  well  if  Bishops 
had  something  like  a  clearing-house  where  clergy- 


352     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

men  who  are  not  fitly  placed  in  a  diocese  may 
find  their  proper  place  elsewhere?  Indeed,  why 
should  not  each  Bishop  himself  be  a  clearing- 
house? We  seem  to  have  nothing  of  the  kind. 
I  have  more  than  once  sent  out  to  a  number  of 
my  brother  Bishops  a  circular  stating  my  need 
of  a  particular  kind  of  man  and  saying  that  it 
occurred  to  me  that  the  exact  kind  of  man 
needed  by  me  might  not  be  needed  where  he  was, 
and  I  have  asked  that  they  read  my  statement 
of  my  want  and  return  it  to  me,  not  troubling 
themselves  further  unless  they  found  they  could 
help  me.  I  can  only  add  that  I  do  not  remem- 
ber that  my  efforts  of  this  kind  have  met  with 
much  success.  In  default  of  a  clearing-house 
among  the  Bishops,  one  would  think  that  we 
would  have  in  connection  with  our  General  Mis- 
sionary Society  a  central  place  or  agency  for  in- 
formation regarding  clergjuien  eligible  for  the 
missionaiy  field;  but,  so  far  as  the  domestic  part 
of  the  field  is  concerned,  we  have  nothing  of  the 
kind. 

"Alas,  you  sigh,  as  I  bring  my  jeremiad  to  a 
close,  the  Church  does  not  bring  forth  the  kind 
of  children  needed  for  her  work.  No,  she  does 
not — ^but  such  a  personifying  of  the  Christian 
society  as  a  mother  may  be  misleading.  It  may 
tend  to  divert  attention  from  the  responsibilities 
of  each  one  of  us  as  those  m4io  make  up  the 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE  353 

Church  and  determine  her  character  and  de- 
termine the  character  of  her  offspring.  The 
Church  planted  in  the  world  at  the  second  crea- 
tion is  like  the  seed  planted  in  the  earth  at  the 
first  creation.  It  brings  forth  fruit  after  its 
kind.  The  Church's  kind  or  character  is  de- 
termined by  the  kind  of  its  individual  members 
and  that  kind,  I  fear,  is  not  the  kind  which  brings 
forth  missionary  sons.  It  is  we  individuals  who 
are  responsible.  It  is  I,  and  you,  and  you,  and 
you,  and  you,  endlessly,  who  each  is  lacking  in 
life  and  in  life  power,  and  it  is  these  single  in- 
dividual lacks  aggregating  and  coalescing  that 
lower  the  Church's  general  vitality.  Captain 
Mahan  most  truly  wrote:  'A  thoroughly 
health!/,  thoroughly  vitalized  body  politic  pro- 
duces spontaneously  the  leaders  it  needs;  pop- 
ular impulse  finds  expression  inevitably  in 
individuals,  competent  and  numerous  enough  to 
effect  the  objects  toward  which  it  tends.'  " 


THE  DIVORCE   REFORM    CAMPAIGN 

1893-1908 

WHEN  Bishop  Hare  first  went  to  his  work 
in  Niobrara,  the  needs  of  the  Indians 
and  the  measures  for  their  improvement  pre- 
sented themselves  in  definite  forms.  Soon  after 
the  approximately  even  division  of  his  work  into 
the  Indian  and  the  white  field,  a  need  of  the 
whites  appeared  with  equal  definiteness.  This 
was  the  need  for  a  clearer  perception  of  the  evil 
and  danger  in  the  prevalent  views  of  divorce  in 
South  Dakota.  The  laws  and  their  interpreta- 
tion were  such  that  the  rapid  and  easy  dissolu- 
tion of  the  marriage  bond  became  a  byword  not 
only  at  home  but  throughout  the  country.  "Ask 
a  schoolboy  of  Massachusetts  what  Sioux  Falls 
is  famous  for,"  said  a  Sioux  Falls  newspaper, 
"and  his  answer  will  bring  a  blush  to  any  loyal 
citizen  of  this  city."  These  words  were  written 
late  in  the  campaign  for  better  conditions.  The 
reputation  on  which  they  were  based  had  been 
won  chiefly  in  the  final  decade  of  the  nineteenth 
century. 

354 


THE  DIVORCE  REFORM  CAMPAIGN     355 

To  a  man  of  Bishop  Hare's  chivalric  feeling 
towards  women,  and  consequently  towards  the 
institution  of  marriage,  the  conditions  were  in- 
tolerable. As  early  as  1885,  he  said  in  his  Con- 
vocation Address:  "The  notions  which  prevail 
in  this  country  on  the  subject  of  JVIarriage  and 
Divorce  are  lamentably  lax.  This  laxity  arises 
partly  from  the  fact  that  it  is  taken  for  granted 
that  marriages  and  divorces  which  are  not  con- 
demned by  the  law  of  the  land  are  therefore 
justifiable  before  the  bar  of  conscience — a  pre- 
posterous assumption.  The  laws  of  the  land 
leave  untouched  vast  provinces  in  the  domain  of 
morals.  A  drunken  revel,  if  confined  within  the 
walls  of  one's  house,  is  untouched  by  the  law  of 
the  land;  and  so  with  jealousy,  hate,  envy,  and 
nameless  personal  sins.  It  is  by  no  means  safe 
therefore  to  say,  'What  the  law  allows  must  be 
right.'  In  the  matter  of  marriage  and  divorce 
the  law  allows  much  that  is  not  right."  The 
law  for  Christians  as  laid  down  by  Christ  Him- 
self and  by  the  Church — in  more  than  one  of  its 
branches — is  then  set  forth  in  the  Address. 

Within  a  few  years  the  divergence  between 
the  law  for  Christians  and  the  laws  of  South  Da- 
kota became  more  and  more  apparent.  On 
Bishop  Hare's  return  from  Japan  and  China  in 
1892,  he  wrote  to  his  daughter-in-law: 

.     .     .     "The  rain,  the  deaths  and,  worse  than 


356     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

all,  the  scandalous  divorce  mill  which  is  running 
at  Sioux  Falls,  with  revelations  of  the  silliness 
and  wickedness  of  men  and  women,  have  made 
my  return  home  a  very  gloomy  one.  I  despise 
people  who  trifle  M^th  marriage  relations  so  in- 
tensely that  the  moral  nausea  produces  nausea  of 
the  stomach.  I  have  a  continual  bad  taste  in  my 
mouth.  One  of  the family,  after  cultivat- 
ing our  church  in  Sioux  Falls  and  playing  the 
role  of  an  injured  woman,  has  turned  a  disgust- 
ing somersault.  She  was  accompanied  by  her 
adviser,  so  called, by  name,  whom  she  mar- 
ried at  once  upon  her  divorce,  and  it  turns  out 

that  he  is  one ,  or  some  name  of  that  kind! 

She  gave  $1,000  to  put  memorial  windows  to 

Mrs. in  the  cathedral.    They  are  here,  but  I 

won't  have  them.  I'd  as  lief  paste  up  the  flam- 
ing placards  of  a  low  circus.  I  shall  write  the 
donor  that  her  windows  are  subject  to  her  order." 
These  windows  which  the  donor,  replying  to 
his  letter,  asked  him  to  dispose  of  as  he  might 
see  fit,  were  the  source  of  much  perplexity,  and 
lay  long  unopened  in  the  basement  of  the  cathe- 
dral at  Sioux  Falls.  They  illustrated  but  one  of 
many  personal  complications.  Another  arose 
when  after  a  long  absence  from  South  Dakota 
Bishop  Hare  was  invited  to  dine  at  a  house  which 
he  had  formerly  visited.  To  his  astonishment  he 
found  not  only  the  man  of  the  house  equipped 


THE  DIVORCE  REFORM  CAMPAIGN      357 

with  a  new  wife,  but  the  former  wife  sitting  at 
the  table  with  her  new  husband.  His  chagrin 
was  only  increased  by  discovering  that  the  great 
embarrassment  which  he  felt  in  the  situation  was 
whoUy  unshared  by  the  strangely  assorted  quar- 
tette. It  is  safe  to  assume  that  after  the  begin- 
ning of  1893  he  was  spared  the  awkwardness  of 
other  dinner-parties  of  this  nature. 

In  1893  he  became  definitely  the  leader  of  the 
campaign  in  South  Dakota  for  a  reform  in  the 
divorce  laws  of  the  state.  A  Pastoral  Letter, 
dated  January  11,  1893,  addressed  "To  the 
Clergy  and  People  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  South  Dakota,"  speaks  clearly  for  the 
position  which  he  then  took.  The  first  part  of 
it,  he  wrote,  "is  substantially  the  same  as  the 
statement  prepared  by  me  in  connection  with  a 
petition  to  the  Legislature."  In  this  petition  a 
number  of  ministers  in  Sioux  Falls  joined. 
They  urged — in  the  words  of  The  Church  News 
— "not  so  much  those  high  teachings,  which,  as 
ministers  of  the  Gospel,  they  would  preach  from 
their  pulpits,  but  those  reforms  which  seemed  to 
them  to  commend  themselves  at  once  to  the  ordi- 
nary morals  of  decent  people  and  to  practical 
legislators."  The  second  part  of  the  Pastoral 
was  addressed,  as  Bishop  Hare  expressed  it,  "es- 
pecially to  those  persons  who  are  in  any  way  con- 
nected with  the  church  of  which  I  am  an  officer." 


S58     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

It  is  the  first  portion  of  the  letter  upon  which, 
by  reason  of  its  more  public  bearing,  attention 
may  be  fixed  in  tliis  place. 

On  the  very  day  on  which  the  Pastoral  Letter 
was  dated,  January  11,  1893,  Bishop  Hare  wTote 
to  his  sister  Mary :  "I  leave  for  something  of  a 
visitation  to-morrow  which  will  end  up,  with 
some  days  given  to  the  Legislature  at  Pierre, 
where  also  I  am  to  consecrate  our  little  church. 
Imagine  me  in  the  lobby,  'the  tliird  house,'  as 
they  call  it!"  The  petition  was  presented  to  the 
Legislature  on  January  23.  By  that  time,  al- 
though there  was  no  organization  for  carrying 
on  the  movement  and  no  appeal  had  been  made 
to  the  general  public  for  signatures,  nine  hun- 
dred names  were  subscribed  to  it;  a  supple- 
mentary list  of  five  hundred  w^as  afterwards 
received.  At  Pierre  the  Lieutenant  Governor, 
presiding  over  the  Senate,  invited  Bishop  Hare, 
according  to  The  Church  Netcs,  "to  occupy  a 
seat  beside  him  during  one  of  the  sessions  of 
that  body,  and  by  an  unsolicited  vote  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  he  was  given  the 
use  of  their  Hall  for  the  purpose  of  an  ad- 
dress on  the  question  of  JMarriage  and  Di- 
vorce. The  judiciary  committees  of  both  houses 
gave  him  a  patient  and  courteous  hearing  in 
joint  session." 

Of  the  plea  which  he  made  to  the  Legislature 


THE  DIVORCE  REFORM  CAMPAIGN     359 

the  printed  statement  accompanying  the  petition 
may  be  taken  as  an  adequate  expression.  Since 
it  is  too  long  to  quote  entire,  a  few  passages  from 
the  Pastoral  Letter  in  which  it  is  embodied  will 
sufficiently  represent  it : 

"We  are  drifting  into  polygamy!  Simul- 
taneous polygamy  we  brand  with  infamy  and  the 
supreme  law  of  the  land  is  invoked  to  extirpate 
it  from  the  country;  but  consecutive  polygamy 
has  achieved,  we  now  discover,  under  our  loose 
divorce  laws,  a  respectable  status.  There  are 
cases  not  a  few  where  one  man,  or  one  woman, 
has  occupied  the  relation  of  husband  or  wife,  as 
the  case  may  be,  to  two,  three,  or  four  different 
living  persons!  And  a  case  is  known  where  a 
married  daughter  invited  to  her  new  husband's 
tea  table,  not  her  father  and  mother — sweet  re- 
union! but  her  divorced  father  and  his  new  wife 
and  her  mother  from  whom  her  father  had  been 
divorced  and  her  new  husband!  They  sat  con- 
fronting each  other, — and  so  low  was  conscience 
sunk  that  there  was  no  shame. 

"But,  now,  let  us  come  nearer  home.  Have 
not  we  in  South  Dakota  given  an  impetus  to  this 
downward  progress  by  the  laws  on  divorce  which 
we  allow  to  remain  upon  our  statute  book? 

"By  our  law  only  the  short  period  of  ninety 
days'  residence  is  required  as  a  condition  pre- 
cedent to  bringing  an  action  for  divorce.     This 


360     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

has  been  well  advertised,  and  thus  people  flock 
here  from  different  states.  They  buy  no  dwell- 
ings, rent  no  dwellings,  live  transiently  in  hotels, 
swear  they  intend  to  reside  here,  sue  parties  1,500 
miles  away,  obtain  their  end,  and  disappear 
from  our  state  forever,  contributing  nothing  but 
some  dollars,  much  moral  hurt  to  the  community, 
especially  the  young,  and  huge  public  scan- 
dal!    .     .     . 

"Of  course,  the  ignoble  part  which  our  fair 
state  has  been  made  thus  to  play  has  its  apolo- 
gists. Some,  honest  and  honorable.  More,  it  is 
feared,  because  the  divorce  mills  are  profitable. 

"Divorce  litigation  has  brought  large  money, 
it  is  said,  into  our  needy  state.  The  business  of 
the  florists  and  jewelers  has  increased  ten  and 
twenty  fold.  Hotel  proprietors  are  growing 
rich. 

"Thus,  unconsciously,  those  who  reap  the 
harvest  are  led  to  throw  an  attractive  guise  over 
what,  but  for  their  self-interest,  would  wear  a 
hideous  form.  But,  for  the  rest  of  us,  we  enter 
protest. 

"The  beauty  of  our  florists'  greenhouses  de- 
parts when  their  chief  patrons  are  those  engaged 
in  violating  marriage  vows! 

"How  long  can  decent  matrons  and  modest 
maidens  pay  visits  to  friends  at  hotels  when  they 


THE  DIVORCE  REFORM  CAMPAIGN      361 

feel  that  their  presence  there  seems  to  put  them 
in  an  equivocal  position? 

"How  will  our  lawyers  maintain  their  high 
calling  as  advocates  of  righteousness  and  virtue 
if  their  chief  emolument  and  occupation  come 
from  so  morally  enervating  a  tiling  as  the  laxity 
of  our  laws  on  divorce? 

"How  long  will  our  newspapers  be  a  virtuous 
people's  organ  of  expression  if  this  dominating 
money  interest  shuts  their  indignant  remon- 
strance out? 

"The  moral  sense  and  higher  sentiments  of 
some  are  under  a  strange  spell,  but  the  people 
are  asking  how  far  the  profits  of  a  few  are  profit- 
able to  the  people  as  a  whole.  They  argue — If 
the  divorce  business  is,  as  some  represent,  merely, 
or  chiefly,  the  granting  legitimate  relief  to  in- 
jured wives  and  husbands  who  seek  deliverance 
from  faithless  partners,  why  the  purchase  of  so 
much  costly  jewelrj^  and  so  many  beautiful 
flowers?  Does  not  this  increase  in  these  partic- 
ular lines  of  business  indicate  that  lovers  are 
about,  and  that  not  compassion  for  wronged  and 
broken-hearted  husbands  and  wives  is  chiefly 
needed,  but  denunciation  of  those  who,  in  the 
language  of  Scripture,  'creep  into  houses  and 
lead  captive  silly  women'? 

"Does  this  high  living  (the  wines  and  costly 


362     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

cigars)  which  proves  so  profitable  to  certain 
members  of  the  community,  indicate  the  presence 
of  outraged  husbands  and  wives,  who,  after 
grave  thought,  are  seeking  with  sad  hearts  libera- 
tion from  a  bond  whose  sacredness  has  been  vio- 
lated by  infidelity  of  the  other  partner,  or  the 
presence  of  persons  who,  while  still  married  in 
the  eyes  of  the  law  and  of  the  'One  Law-Giver,' 
are  already  in  love  with  others  than  their  lawful 
partners  and  gay  with  the  expectation  of  being 
soon  declared  free  to  gratify  with  the  sanction  of 
law  their  guilty  passion? 

"How  much  is  this  plea  that  our  divorce  pro- 
ceedings advertise  the  country  worth, — except  to 
our  adversaries?  Do  we  wish  to  be  famous? 
This  makes  us  infamous.  Would  we  have 
credit?  This  brings  upon  us  disox^dii.  We  are 
the  derision  of  the  country.  We  who  live  here 
know  well  the  richness  of  our  soil,  the  wealth  of 
our  mineral,  the  cheeriness  of  our  climate,  the 
sweetness  of  our  home-life,  the  certainty  of  our 
prosperous  future;  but  the  outside  world  ex- 
claims, 'South  Dakota!  A  state  so  God-for- 
saken and  destitute  of  other  attractions  that,  in 
despair  of  drawing  even  a  fair  portion  of  the 
crowding,  honest  immigrants  who  seek  to  make 
for  themselves  a  home,  it  has  resolved  to  secure 
the  residence,  at  least  for  ninety  days,  of  quarrel- 
ing and  unfaithful  husbands  and  wives  who  dare 


THE  DIVORCE  REFORM  CAMPAIGN     363 

not  face  the  public  virtue  of  their  own  homes! 
Sioux  Falls,  Yankton,  Deadwood,  etc.!  Towns 
these  whose  people,  lacking  enterprise  and  pub- 
lic spirit  enough  to  develop  surrounding  farms, 
stone  quarries,  mines,  water  powers,  packing 
houses,  woolen  mills,  have  flung  all  sciTiples  to 
the  wind  and  are  trying  the  venture  of  huge  di- 
vorce mills!  And  this,  though  they  know  that 
this  course  will  cast  a  shadow  upon  that  which 
is  really  the  basis  of  all  stable  prosperity,  their 
educational  institutions,  their  credit,  and  their 
home  hfe!' 

"The  truth  is,  as  we  look  upon  Utah  and 
Mormonism,  somewhat  so  the  better  part  of  the 
population  of  other  states  look  upon  us.  And 
some  of  us  who  love  our  state  the  best  confess 
our  residence  with  almost  averted  face,  and  sign 
our  names  on  hotel  registers  with  a  feehng  that 
it  is  a  record  of  our  shame.     .     .     . 

"Now  let  us  proceed  to  the  consideration  of 
our  South  Dakota  laws  on  the  subject  of  mar- 
riage and  divorce,  and  inquire  how  far  they  con- 
form to  the  dignity  and  importance  of  the 
subject  with  which  they  deal.  One  needs  to  be- 
ware of  the  danger  of  bearing  false  witness  in 
this  matter  and  making  the  case  worse  than  it 
is.  We  bear  glad  testimony  to  the  fact  that  the 
law  of  South  Dakota  is  far  higher  in  its  care  for 
the  sacredness  of  marriage  than  that  of  some 


864.     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

other  jurisdictions.  In  the  first  place,  the  causes 
for  divorce  are  all  defined,  and  defined,  with  a 
fair  degree  of  exactness.  In  the  second  place, 
the  causes  of  action  are  far  less  in  number  than 
in  some  other  states,  being  only  six,  as  follows: 

"One. — Adultery. 

*'Two. — Extreme  cruelty. 

"Three.— Wilful  desertion. 

"Four.— Wilful  neglect. 

"Five. — Habitual  intemperance. 

"Six. — Conviction  of  felony. 

"None  of  these  causes,  it  will  be  seen,  are 
trivial  (though,  alas,  they  may  be  interpreted  in  a 
trivial  way) ;  all  are  grave,  though,  we  venture  to 
think,  several  are  altogether  insufficient. 

"Again,  httle  is  left  to  the  discretion  of  the 
particular  judge.  There  is  no  open  door  for  the 
creeping  in  of  all  sorts  of  trivial  causes  such  as 
are  admitted  by  the  phrase  used  in  the  statutes 
of  some  states,  'The  discretion  of  the  judge.' 

"In  the  third  place,  our  law  gives  dignity  to 
marriage  by  requiring  that  marriage  must  be 
solemnized^  authenticated  and  recorded.  It  does 
not  give  its  imprimatur  to  a  mere  avowal  that 
the  parties  take  each  other  as  man  and  wife. 

"Fourthly,  our  law  has  a  care  for  the  protec- 
tion of  the  weaker  party,  the  defendant  wife. 
It  provides  that,  while  the  action  for  divorce  is 
pending,  the  court  may  require  the  husband  to 


THE  DIVORCE  REFORM  CAMPAIGN      365 

pay  as  alimony  any  money  necessary  to  enable 
the  wife  to  support  herself  and  her  children  and 
to  prosecute  or  defend  the  action. 

"Fifth,  our  law  does  not  put  a  premium  on 
adultery  by  allowing  the  guilty  party  to  marry 
again  and  so  get  profit  out  of  his  own  offense. 
The  guilty  party  in  a  divorce  granted  for  adul- 
tery may  not  marry  again  until  after  the  death 
of  the  other. 

"But  thankful  and  proud  as  we  are  that  South 
Dakota  law  has  so  many  excellent  features,  we 
must  submit  that  it  is  open  to  the  gravest  objec- 
tion. 

"First,  because  of  causes  which  are  declared 
to  be  adequate  grounds  for  divorce.  (We  do 
not  insist  upon  this  nor  discuss  it  here  and  now, 
for  the  time,  perhaps,  has  not  yet  come,  and  there 
are  amendments  at  present  more  feasible  on 
wliich  we  would  unite. ) 

"Second,  because  the  law  requires  but  90  days' 
residence  in  order  to  give  a  party  a  right  to  sue 
here  for  divorce,  while  it  requires  six  months' 
residence  as  s^ine  qua  non  to  acquire  the  right  of 
citizenship. 

"It  is  pleaded,  we  are  aware,  that  those  who 
come  here  seeking  divorce  come  here  seeking  also 
to  reside.  The  attractions  of  the  state  bring 
them  and  not  the  notoriety  of  the  state  as  one  in 
which  there  are  conveniences  for  obtaining  di- 


366     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

vorce.  We  meet  the  statement  with  the  ques- 
tion: 

"1st.  How  many  of  the  divorce-seeking  per- 
sons who  came  to  South  Dakota  during  the  last 
three  years  with  the  declared  intention  to  reside 
are  now  residents  of  the  state?  How  many  re- 
mained a  week?  Is  it  not  well  known  that  after 
the  decree,  the  divorcees  can  generally  hardly 
stem  their  impatience  to  be  off  till  the  departure 
of  the  next  train? 

"We  msLY  add  that  the  law  does  not  require 
sufficient  evidence  of  intention  to  reside  perma- 
nently in  South  Dakota.  It  requires  only  that 
the  applicant  should  have  been  'in  good  faith  a 
resident  of  the  state  for  ninety  days  next  preced- 
ing the  commencement  of  the  action.'  How  in- 
adequate this  provision  is  appears  from  this,  that 
as  a  matter  of  fact  the  mode  of  life  which  sug- 
gests a  transient  stay,  hotel  life,  is  held  to  be 
quite  sufficient  for  its  fulfillment. 

"The  evil  would  not  be  so  great  if  the  law  of- 
fered its  liberal  provisions  for  divorce  only  to 
our  own  people.  Why  should  it  invite  persons 
from  abroad?  If  such  persons  maiTy  and  live 
and  quarrel  outside  South  Dakota,  why  should 
they  be  allowed  to  come  here  and  scandalize  us 
with  the  litigation  and  disaster  with  which  they 
end  up  their  connection  ? 

"Moreover,  if  the  prosecutor  in  a  divorce  suit 


THE  DIVORCE  REFORM  CAMPAIGN     367 

is  a  right-living,  faithful  partner  who  has  suf- 
fered such  grievous  injury  from  the  other  party 
that  he  has  good  reason  for  divorce,  why  should 
not  the  suit  be  brought  where  the  parties  have 
dwelt,  where  the  fidelity  and  forbearance  of  the 
injured  partner  are  well  known,  where  the  wit- 
nesses are  at  hand,  and  where  the  innocent  party 
may  repose  upon  the  sympathy  of  approving 
neighbors?  Why,  we  ask,  should  the  laws  be 
such  that  a  husband  dwelling  in  Virginia  may 
leave  his  wife,  avowedly  for  business  purposes, 
but  really  to  keep  company  in  another  town  with 
a  woman  who  has  bewitched  him,  then  drive  the 
wife  to  seek  refuge  with  friends,  then  auda- 
ciously appear  here  in  South  Dakota,  1,500  miles 
from  the  scene  of  his  own  and  his  wife's  life, 
bring  suit  against  her  for  desertion  and  drag  the 
poor  soul — timid,  sensitive,  ignorant  of  court 
rooms  and  court  processes — out  here  among 
strangers  if  she  would  adequately  defend  her 
honor  ? 

"Again,  the  law  is  seriously  defective,  we  sub- 
mit, in  that  adequate  service  of  summons  on  the 
respondent  is  not  absolutely  required. 

"Publication  in  a  newspaper  is  necessary,  but 
what  likelihood  is  there  that  publication  in  a 
Sioux  Falls  paper  will  reach  a  wife  living  in 
Georgia  or  Virginia? 

"It  is  replied  that  the  law  provides  that  the 


368     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

complaint  and  summons  shall  be  mailed  to  the 
person  to  be  served  at  his  place  of  residence  un- 
less it  appears  by  affidavit  that  the  residence  is 
unknown  and  cannot,  with  reasonable  diligence, 
be  ascertained.  But,  is  not  this  provision  a  sim- 
ple farce?  What  man  who  has  spent  ninety 
days  in  Sioux  Falls  away  from  his  wife  and  pur- 
posely keeping  himself  in  ignorance  of  where 
she  might  have  fled  for  succor,  could  not  swear 
that  he  did  not  know  and  could  not  find  out  where 
she  dwelt! 

"The  Dakota  law  is  open  to  grave  criticism, 
again,  because,  besides  requiring  only  three 
months'  residence  (residence  which  may  be,  and 
generally  is  no  real  residence  at  all),  it  hurries 
the  divorce  proceedings  on  with  perilous  and  in- 
decent haste  to  the  conclusion.  The  action  for 
the  dissolution  of  this  most  sacred  bond  may  be 
begun,  continued  and  ended  all  within  seventy- 
two  days,  and  all  this  though  the  case  may  be 
tried  in  South  Dakota  while  the  defendant  lives 
in  Virginia  or  Florida,  or  anywhere  else  in  the 
United  States,  however  remote. 

"The  Dakota  law  is  open  to  grave  censure, 
again,  because  the  conclusion  to  which  the  action 
is  allowed  to  hurry  on,  is  a  catastrophe — divorce, 
final,  complete,  absolute.  The  marriage  has 
ceased  to  be.  The  very  bond  itself  is  broken  and 
forever.     There  is  no  provision  for  mere  separa- 


THE  DIVORCE  REF0R:M  CAMPAIGN     369 

tion  for  a  season.     The  parties  are  permitted  to 
take  no  remedy  but  absolute  divorce. 

"Other  codes  have  provision  by  which  the  de- 
cree of  the  court  is  at  first  only  provisional. 
Time  is  given  for  reflection  and  for  the  revela- 
tion of  further  facts.  Thus  opportunity  is  af- 
forded for  amending  or  changing  the  decree,  and 
for  the  parties  to  review  their,  perhaps,  hasty  ac- 
tion, and  come  together  again.  But  under  our 
code  there  is  no  room  for  change  or  repentance. 
Instantly  upon  the  judgment  of  the  court  the 
parties  become  the  subject  of  an  irrevocable 
decree.  The  evils  are  many;  among  others, 
this:  a  married  person  desiring  to  marry  again 
finds  little  to  curb  desire,  and  the  indecencies 
which  result  stare  us  in  the  face.  Parties  still 
lawfully  married  are  stimulated  to  courtship 
by  the  knowledge  that,  though  married,  but 
seventy  days  stand  between  them  and  the  grati- 
fication of  their  unlawful  passion.  Parties  come 
here  accompanied  by  the  person  who  is  to 
supplant  the  lawful  husband  or  wife,  and  an 
hour  or  two  only  elapses  after  divorce  before 
the  lovers  are  married  in  the  very  presence  of 
the  awful  disaster  which  disrupted  the  former 
tie!  Surely,  such  a  desperate  measure  of  relief 
as  absolute  divorce  should  not  be  the  one  remedy 
for  unhappy  marriages  spread  upon  the  page  of 
our  statute  book. 


370     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

"Most  earnestly  we  ask,  Is  not  our  law  in  too 
much  of  a  hurry?  Should  it  so  soon  resort  to 
amputation?  Might  it  not  administer  the  dis- 
cipline of  'limited  divorce'  and  'divorce  with  ali- 
mony' in  the  hope  that  health  will  return  and  the 
union  be  restored?  JMight  we  not  trust  more  to 
the  vis  medicatriv  naturae?     .     .     , 

"Reviewing  the  whole  subject,  both  absolutely 
and  in  its  bearings  upon  the  divorce  laws  of 
South  Dakota,  we  cannot  but  think  our  code 
needs  amendment  and  that  the  petition  accom- 
panying this  statement  of  the  case  is  opportune, 
and  demanded  by  the  state  of  the  law." 

The  immediate  result  of  this  first  appeal  for 
reform  is  set  forth  in  Bishop  Hare's  own  words 
in  his  diocesan  paper:  "It  will  be  a  source  of 
intense  satisfaction  to  many  lovers  of  virtue 
and  the  domestic  hearth  to  know  that  the  efforts 
which  were  made  in  behalf  of  the  removal  from 
the  divorce  laws  of  South  Dakota  of  some  of 
their  objectionable  features  met  with  a  large 
measure  of  success.  Six  months'  residence  is 
now  required  instead  of  ninety  days  as  hereto- 
fore and  the  requirement  regarding  service  of 
summons  on  the  defendant  has  been  so  improved 
as  to  leave  much  less  room  for  wrong."  Bishop 
Hare's  personal  contribution  to  this  achievement 
was  recognized  not  only  in  South  Dakota,  but,  as 


THE  DIVORCE  REFORM  CAMPAIGN      371 

the  newspapers  of  many  cities  bore  witness, 
throughout  the  country. 

The  fight,  however,  was  by  no  means  won. 
Though  the  reform  of  the  laws  in  1893  was  re- 
garded by  the  opponents  of  easy  divorces  as 
merely  a  step  in  the  right  direction,  another  class 
of  the  community  found  their  incomes  seriously 
affected  by  the  falling  off  of  the  "divorce  trade'* 
and  in  1895  organized  an  effort  to  have  the  laws 
reamended  in  their  own  interest.  On  February 
8,  1895,  Bishop  Hare  sent  to  two  newspapers  in 
Sioux  Falls  a  letter  w^hich  only  one  of  them,  the 
Argus-Leader,  printed.     It  read  as  follows: 

"Newspapers  are  generally  understood  to  be 
sources  of  information  to  which  their  less  well- 
informed  subscribers  may  appeal  for  enlighten- 
ment. 

"May  I  therefore  ask  you,  as  I  have  been  ab- 
sent from  South  Dakota  for  some  weeks,  what 
credit  in  j^our  opinion  should  be  given  to  the  fol- 
lowing statements  which  have  come  to  me  from 
a  credible  source: 

"First.  That  an  effort  is  being  made  to  in- 
duce the  present  legislature  to  change  the  pres- 
ent divorce  law  of  South  Dakota,  so  that  the 
plaintiff  can  begin  proceedings  immediately  on 
his  arrival  in  South  Dakota.  The  law  at  present 
requires  six  months'  antecedent  residence.  Of 
course  the  right  to  begin  proceedings  at  once 


372     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

would  make  South  Dakota  a  more  attractive 
field  for  persons  tired  of  their  matrimonial 
obligations;  for  passion  always  seeks  immediate 
gratification,  and  passion,  as  experience  shows, 
is  often,  if  not  generally,  back  of  a  suit  for  di- 
vorce. 

"Second.  That  a  subscription  paper  has  been 
circulated  among  lawyers,  jewelers,  innkeepers 
and  others  for  the  purpose  of  raising  a  large 
amount  of  money  to  maintain  a  lobby  at  Pierre 
with  the  end  of  securing  legislation  of  the  kind 
above  described. 

"Third.  That  a  tacit  understanding  has  been 
arrived  at  by  which  reporters  will  refrain  from 
keeping  the  public  informed  of  the  progi-ess  of 
this  movement  in  the  hope  that  it  may  slip 
through  before  the  public  can  be  aroused. 
"Yours  very  truly, 

"W.  H.  Hare." 

Three  days  later,  that  the  public  might  surely 
be  aroused,  Bishop  Hare  joined  with  the  Rev. 
W.  H.  Thrall,  an  influential  minister  of  the 
Congregational  Church,  and  other  representa- 
tive men  in  sending  out  an  appeal  "To  the  Peo- 
ple" for  signatures  to  a  remonstrance  and 
petition  against  the  passage  by  the  House  of 
Representatives  of  a  divorce  bill  already  favor- 
ably reported  by  the  judiciary  committee  of  the 


THE  DIVORCE  REFORM  CAMPAIGN     373 

Senate.  Again  the  appeal  to  public  opinion  was 
successful.  The  House  rejected  the  measure, 
and  Bishop  Hare  wrote  with  satisfaction:  "The 
proposed  amendment  was  manifestly  not  meant 
to  relieve  our  own  citizens  who  were  not  happily 
mated.  It  added  nothing  to  their  rights  and 
privileges.  It  was  distinctly  a  bid  for  divorce 
business  from  outside.  It  was  evidently  in- 
tended to  advertise  South  Dakota  to  the  country 
at  large  as  a  place  of  easy  divorces,  and  to  oiFer 
inducements  to  non-residents,  w^ho  are  tired  of 
their  conjugal  relations,  to  come  here  and  tell  in 
the  ears  of  our  courts  and  to  our  people  the 
humiliating  and  often  disgusting  details  of  vio- 
lated marriage  vows.  It  deserved  the  defeat 
which  it  received." 

For  a  time  there  was  nothing  more  to  be  done 
with  the  Legislature.  But  with  his  own  flock,  in 
his  annual  Convocation  Addresses  and  in  other 
ways.  Bishop  Hare  continued  to  urge  the  sanctity 
of  domestic  life  and  a  stricter  enforcement  of 
the  laws  of  the  Church  regarding  divorce  and  re- 
marriage. Even  as  early  as  1895  he  made  a  spe- 
cial plea  for  the  very  course  which  the  General 
Convention  of  1904  established  by  law — that  a 
clergyman  asked  to  remarry  an  innocent  di- 
vorced person  should  not  be  satisfied  merely  with 
that  person's  statement  regarding  the  guilt  of 
the  former  husband  or  wife,  but  should  secure 


874.     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

unquestionable  proof  of  it.  In  1906  the  Gov- 
ernor of  South  Dakota  appointed  him  a  delegate 
to  the  convention  in  Washington  to  secure  uni- 
form divorce  laws  throughout  the  country. 
This  convention  reached  certain  positive  conclu- 
sions, and  submitted  them  in  printed  form  to  the 
state  legislatures.  In  South  Dakota  certain 
lawyers  opposed  the  proposed  changes,  but  the 
Bar  Association  at  its  annual  meeting  gave  its 
approval  to  three  of  them,  and  these  were 
adopted  by  the  legislature  of  1907.  Such,  how- 
ever, was  the  influence  of  those  enterprising 
citizens  who,  in  the  language  of  the  Philadelphia 
Public  Ledger^  took  advantage  of  their  golden 
opportunity  "just  as  they  would  prepare  for 
grain  shipments  or  for  the  mule  trade  or  'traffic 
in  hogs,'  "  that  the  adoption  of  the  new  provi- 
sions w^as  delayed  until  a  referendum  vote  of  the 
people  should  pass  upon  them  in  the  November 
election  of  1908.  For  those  who  opposed  re- 
form this  was  a  dangerous  expedient.  Twice 
before.  Bishop  Hare  and  his  fellow-workers  for 
better  conditions  had  gone  direct  to  the  people, 
and  had  won  their  case.  Again  they  prepared 
an  appeal.  It  was  printed  in  almost  all  of  the 
nearly  three  hundred  weekly  papers  of  the  State, 
in  many  dailies,  and  in  the  form  of  galley  proof 
nearly  one  hundred  thousand  copies  were  dis- 
tributed through  the  Christian  congregations  of 


THE  DIVORCE  REFORM  CAMPAIGN     375 

South  Dakota.  The  name  of  Bishop  Hare, 
stricken  in  years  and  tortured  by  the  physical 
sufferings  wliich  were  soon  to  end  his  life, 
headed  the  list  of  those  who  commended  it  to 
the  attention  of  the  people  of  South  Dakota. 
At  the  very  beginning  of  the  pamphlet  there  is 
a  statement  in  popular  terms  of  the  gist  of  the 
new  statutes  * 'which  practically  said  to  the  pro 
tern,  immigrants  from  other  States  seeking  di- 
vorce in  South  Dakota: 

"First,  you  have  abused  our  law  which  gives 
you,  after  six  months'  residence,  liberty  to  sue 
for  divorce  in  our  courts.  Hereafter  you  can- 
not import  conjugal  scandals  from  other  States 
into  South  Dakota  courts  unless  you  have  resided 
here  in  good  faith  for  one  whole  year. 

"Second,  you  cannot  take  up  residence  in  one 
county  and  slip  off  to  some  unknown  county  and 
bring  your  suit  for  divorce  and  make  publication 
of  it  there.  You  must  bring  your  suit  where 
you  actually  live. 

"Third.  You  must  bridle  your  passion. 
You  can  not  hurry  your  case  through  by  push- 
ing it  before  the  judge  in  his  private  room  at  the 
time  which  suits  you.  You  must  bring  it  at  a 
regular  terin  of  court" 

The  arguments  for  the  laws  and  their  final  en- 
actment are  then  set  forth  with  precision  and 
vigor. 


376     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

The  traces  of  Bishop  Hare's  hand  are  clear 
upon  this  pamphlet.  Nor  did  he  satisfy  himself 
with  writing  in  the  interest  of  the  laws.  In  a 
memorial  meeting  at  Sioux  Falls  about  six 
months  after  his  death,  the  Hon.  Edwin  A.  Sher- 
man, of  Sioux  Falls,  touching  upon  Bishop 
Hare's  part  in  the  divorce  reform  campaign, 
said:  "It  was  scarce  eighteen  months  ago  that 
the  Bishop  asked  me  to  accompany  him  to  the 
Business  JMen's  Club  that  he  might  plead  with 
them  on  this  subject.  Though  many  of  the  club 
were  in  sympathy  with  the  law  for  business  rea- 
sons, they  received  the  Bishop  with  the  greatest 
courtesy  and  respect.  It  was  an  incident  pa- 
thetic in  the  extreme  and  one  which  will  never  be 
effaced  from  my  memory.  I  see  him  now,  the 
venerable,  white-haired  man,  with  feeble,  trem- 
bling form,  his  body  racked  with  pain,  standing 
boldly  for  the  right  and  pleading  with  the  busi- 
ness men  for  their  assistance.  Thank  God,  he 
lived  to  see  the  city  and  the  state  purged  of  this 
evil." 

The  popular  vote  was  decisively  in  favor  of 
the  new  enactments.  Bishop  Hare's  last  cam- 
paign for  the  good  of  his  community  and  his 
country  was  fought  and  won.  That  it  was 
clearly  recognized  as  his  campaign  appeared  in 
many  ways.  One  of  the  most  definite  recogni- 
tions was  that  of  Bishop  O'Gorman,  the  Roman 


THE  DIVORCE  REFORM  CAMPAIGN     377 

Catholic  Bishop  of  Sioux  Falls,  who  spoke  at 
the  memorial  meeting  to  which  allusion  has  just 
been  made :  After  dealing  in  general  terms  with 
the  old  and  new  conditions  of  divorce  in  South 
Dakota  he  said:  "These  were  Bishop  Hare's 
ideas  as  I  learned  them  in  conversation  and  cor- 
respondence with  him;  for  I  joined  forces  with 
him  in  the  fight  he  led  against  this  evil  thing. 
We  were  allies  in  doing  away  with  it.  He  led 
the  fight,  step  by  step  he  fought,  forcing  the 
limit  of  residence  from  three  months  to  six,  from 
six  to  twelve.  .  .  .  Morally  and  financially  we 
are  all  the  better  for  the  Christian  courage  of 
Bishop  Hare.  To  him,  the  Defender  of  the  Home, 
honor  and  the  gratitude  of  South  Dakota!" 

Those  who  follow  the  daily  news  in  America 
have  already  become  accustomed  to  the  substitu- 
tion of  Reno  for  Sioux  Falls  as  the  source  of 
items  of  a  certain  order.  How  largely  Bishop 
Hare  was  responsible  for  this  substitution,  the 
reader  of  these  pages  has  been  made  aware.  He 
may  also  remind  himself  that  it  was  a  fitting 
climax  to  a  lifetime  of  devoted  social  and  spir- 
itual service  that,  having  done  what  he  could  for 
the  race  to  which  he  was  originally  sent.  Bishop 
Hare  gave  his  energies  at  the  last  to  a  cause  the 
triumph  of  which  marked  a  distinct  progress  in 
the  people  of  his  own  race  on  the  highway  of 
civihzation. 


XI 

TO  THE   LAST 

1895-1909 

EXCEPT  for  the  brief  period  near  the  be- 
ginning of  Bishop  Hare's  missionary  work, 
when  its  very  continuance  was  threatened  by  the 
state  of  his  health,  it  has  not  seemed  worth  while 
to  lay  special  emphasis  upon  the  physical  handi- 
caps he  was  obHged  to  overcome.     Many  in- 
timations of  their  presence  have  been  recorded. 
In  fact  they  introduced  an  element  into  his  life 
with  which  he  had  constantly  to  reckon ;  but  from 
1875  to  1895  they  were  not  so  pronounced  as  to 
work  any  serious  impairment  of  his  activities. 
In  1895  came  an  illness  which  called  forth  the 
following  directions  from  his  friend  and  physi- 
cian, Dr.  S.  Weir  Mitchell:     "It  is  imperative 
that  you  have  six  months  of  rest  away  from  Da- 
kota.    It  is  probably  not  too  late.     It  is  none 
too  soon — as  to  this  matter   I   am  absolutely 
decided.     No  middle   course  will   answer.     At 
present  I  must   forbid  speeches,  sermons,   ad- 
dresses.    .     .     .     Do  not  put  oiF  your  time  of 

378 


TO  THE  LAST  379 

holiday  any  longer  than  you  can  avoid  doing." 
This  illness  kept  him  for  the  only  time  in  his 
whole  Episcopate  from  the  General  Convention, 
meeting  in  1895  at  Minneapolis.  The  represent- 
atives of  the  Women's  Auxihary  assembled 
there,  sent  him  by  telegraph  a  pledge  of  $1,700 
for  the  work  of  All  Saints  School.  It  came,  as 
he  said,  "when  my  physical  energies  were  very 
much  prostrated,  and  when  the  outstretched  hand 
of  sympathy  and  power  was  particularly  op- 
portune." In  his  Convocation  Address  of  1896 
he  said  further:  "When  my  health  was  in  its 
most  uncertain  condition  a  pledge  of  $7,000 
came  to  me  from  a  long-tried  friend,  who  gave 
me  to  understand  that  I  could  not  have  his 
money  unless  I  took  it  with  his  advice  and  sought 
rest."  Accordingly  he  was  absent  from  South 
Dakota  from  October  of  1895  till  April  of  1896, 
and — needing  further  rest  after  three  months  of 
active  service — sailed  for  Europe  in  July,  reach- 
ing South  Dakota  again  in  September. 

From  the  steamer  on  which  he  returned  he 
wrote  (September  7,  1896)  to  his  sister  Mary: 
"The  passengers  have  fixed  upon  me  to  represent 
them  in  making  a  speech  this  evening  at  dinner 
expressive  of  the  courtesy  and  care  the  Captain 
has  shown  us.  I  demurred  and  asked  that  some 
other  person  be  chosen,  urging  that  my  ecclesias- 
tical character  might  detract  from  my  accept- 


380     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

ableness  with  some,"  but  a  prominent  agnostic 
on  board  declared  him  acceptable,  a  Jew  spoke 
out  for  the  minority  which  he  represented,  and 
"I  was  cornered,"  said  Bishop  Hare,  "and  have 
been  incubating."  The  barrier  of  "ecclesiastical 
character"  had  indeed  long  been  broken  down, 
though  there  was  still  much  work  for  him  to  do 
in  his  official  capacity,  with  a  store  of  the  strength 
of  determination  for  its  performance.  In  No- 
vember of  1896  he  was  writing  to  his  sister  Mary 
from  points  in  a  visitation  to  the  Indian  country, 
rendered  nearly  impassable  by  terrific  snow 
storms.  "A  nine-hours'  continuous  drive  in 
heavy  snow  Friday,"  he  wrote  November  11, 
"tired  me  considerably,  but  on  the  whole  I  stand 
the  journeys  well."  On  November  29,  he  wrote: 
"I  stood  the  exposure  well,  though  I  had  to  go 
to  bed  for  two  days  while  at  Pine  Ridge."  At 
Christmas  his  sisters  sent  him  a  head-rest — 
"which,"  he  wrote  in  gratitude  for  it,  "I  am  sure 
I  shall  enjoy.  The  longer  one's  head  is  on  his 
shoulders,  the  more  he  begins  to  wish  it  were 
somewhere  else." 

Through  the  immediately  ensuing  years,  what- 
ever he  may  have  wished  for  his  head  and  his 
body,  he  spent  of  his  powers  with  a  generous 
spirit.  His  interest  in  passing  events  was  clearly 
shown  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Spanish  war.  On 
May  1,  1898,  he  wrote  to  his  sister  Mary:     "I 


TO  THE  LAST  381 

admired  the  wisdom,  strength  and  forbearance 
of  the  President  during  all  the  trying  weeks 
which  preceded  the  declaration  of  war,  and  hoped 
that  that  resource  might  be  avoided.  .  .  . 
Here  every  one  is  at  a  fever  heat  of  patriotism, 
fanned  even  hotter  in  Sioux  Falls  by  the  arrival 
of  volunteers  of  the  State  who  are  encamped  and 
drilling  in  full  sight  of  All  Saints  School."  Six 
days  later  he  wrote:  "I  found  a  hundred  sol- 
diers who  had  not  so  much  as  a  single  blanket — 
this  at  4  p.  M.  So  I  set  a  movement  on  foot  to 
see  what  our  church  people  could  spare,  sending 
All  Saints  'bus'  around  at  7:30  p.m.,  and  by 
9:30  had  seventy-five  comfortables  collected  and 
at  the  quartermaster's  tent  at  camp." 

Of  his  physical  activities  a  few  passages  from 
letters  to  his  sister  Mary  provide  typical  illustra- 
tions. On  November  22,  1897,  he  wrote  from 
Aberdeen,  South  Dakota:  "I  have  in  twenty 
days  preached  twenty  times,  held  sixteen  con- 
firmations in  which  I  confirmed  seventy  candi- 
dates, have  driven  two  hundred  miles  by  wagon 
and  traveled  eight  hundred  and  sixty-seven  miles 
by  rail,  and  slept  in  thirteen  different  beds.  No 
danger,  you  see,  of  ennui/^  On  March  27,  1899, 
he  wrote  from  Groton,  South  Dakota:  "I  am 
off  on  a  tour  of  two  weeks,  at  a  different  town 
almost  every  day,  all  sorts  of  houses  and  all  sorts 
of  conveyances.     This  morning  I  started  at  6 :30 


382     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

in  a   caboose   attached  to   a   freight."     A  few 
months  later  he  wrote  as  follows : 

"Depot,  Madison,  July  10,  1899. 

"Yesterday,  Sunday,  was  a  genuine  Mission- 
ary day.  At  8  a.  m.  the  Holy  Communion  and 
at  10:30  Morning  Prayer,  baptism  of  a  mother 
and  child,  sermon  and  confirmation;  at  12:15  ad- 
dress to  the  Sunday  School,  and  after  that  con- 
ference with  the  Mission  officers  about  securing 
a  supply  for  their  church;  then  lunch;  at  2  p.  m. 
started  in  a  buggy  for  a  schoolhouse  eight  miles 
out  from  town,  where  country  people  assemble 
for  a  service.  Here  I  baptized  two  infants  and 
preached,  then  drove  on  twelve  miles  to  Howard. 
Here  at  night  I  held  service,  preached  and  con- 
firmed; at  7:30  a.  m.  to-day  had  a  celebration  of 
the  Holy  Communion,  breakfast  at  eight  and 
took  the  train  at  nine."     .     .     . 

In  September  of  the  same  year  he  wrote  of 
his  decision  to  undertake  episcopal  duties  for 
three  weeks  in  New  York  at  the  request  of 
Bishop  Potter:  "I  take  the  work  partly  because 
it  gives  me  a  chance  to  serve  a  friend,  partly  to 
keep  myself  and  my  work  before  the  people  of 
the  New  York  Diocese,  and  partly  because  I  am 
to  receive  $250  for  my  services,  which  will  edu- 
cate one  of  my  clergy  daughters  for  a  year  [at 


TO  THE  LAST  383 

All  Saints  School],  and  leave  $50  over  for  other 
like  purposes." 

Bishop  Hare's  devotion  to  the  interests  of  All 
Saints  School  and  the  part  which  it  came  to  play 
in  his  own  life  have  already  been  touched  upon. 
His  daily  life  in  the  school  is  more  fully  set  forth 
by  Miss  Helen  S.  Peabody,  the  principal: 

"From  the  first  he  made  the  school  his  home, 
choosing  for  his  own  the  two  least  desirable 
rooms  in  the  building,  taking  his  meals  in  the 
school  dining-room,  always  paying  for  his  board 
more  than  any  pupil  paid  for  board  and  tuition 
as  well.  Although  it  was  evident  to  others  that 
he  needed  more  rest  and  care  than  the  exacting 
routine  of  school  life  offered  when  he  came  back, 
always  weary,  often  exhausted,  sometimes  ill,  at 
the  end  of  a  long  missionary  journey,  he  insisted 
for  years  upon  conforming  to  the  habits  of  the 
school  family ;  and  when  he  was  finally  persuaded 
to  breakfast  in  his  room,  it  was  with  the  express 
understanding  that  the  breakfast  served  him 
should  be  the  same  as  that  served  the  school  fam- 
ily. 'What  is  good  enough  for  the  rest,  is  good 
enough  for  me,'  was  the  principle  from  which  we 
were  not  allowed  to  depart.  Only  two  or  three 
years  ago,  after  some  sick  days,  he  remarked,  'I 
notice  that  for  several  days  I  have  had  grape 
fruit  for  breakfast.     I  am  very  grateful  if  this 


384     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

is  the  gift  of  some  kind  friend,  but  oranges  are 
good  enough  for  me;  and  then,  I  tliink  it  not 
suitable  for  a  IMissionary  Bishop  to  allow  him- 
self what  his  clergy  cannot  have.' 

"He  so  loved  to  be  one  with  the  family  in  all 
their  activities  that  parties,  entertainments,  etc., 
were  planned  to  come,  so  far  as  possible,  when 
the  Bishop  could  be  at  home:  and  he  was  never 
too  busy,  too  weary,  or  too  burdened  to  join  in 
their  fun.  When  wdnter  came,  the  Bishop  was 
the  first  one  out  to  help  make  a  'slide,'  and  many 
a  frosty  evening  did  he  spend  on  the  tennis  court 
trying  to  coax  from  a  garden  hose  enough  water 
to  make  a  skating  pond. 

"Some  years  ago  the  Bishop's  eastern  friends 
made  themselves  happy,  the  Bishop  comfortable, 
and  the  school  thankful,  by  building  for  him 
warm,  sunny  rooms  on  the  first  floor.  Here  the 
Bishop  was  really  comfortable  as  he  could  not 
possibly  have  been  before;  but  what  seemed  to 
give  him  the  most  real  pleasure  in  the  new 
quarters  was  that  they  w^ere  next  the  girls'  play- 
ground. Again  and  again  he  would  leave  his 
busy  desk  to  watch  them  for  a  few  minutes  in 
their  happy  play.  'They  never  disturb  me.  I 
love  to  hear  their  voices,'  he  replied  when  some 
one  suggested  that  the  basket  ball  games  next  his 
windows  might  make  too  much  noise. 

"The  Bishop  was  always  the  school  chaplain. 


TO  THE  LAST  385 

Of  course,  when  he  was  well,  he  was  much  away; 
but  when  at  home,  he  always  took  the  chapel 
services.  Except  on  JMonday  mornings  he  gave 
short,  simple  talks  on  Christian  living.  So 
suited  were  these  talks  to  school-girls'  life  that 
his  hearers  among  the  pupils  often  supposed  he 
had  been  told  of  their  questions,  their  difficulties, 
their  shortcomings,  and  the  older  people  won- 
dered how  the  Bishop  knew  just  what  needed  to 
be  said  to  them  as  well  as  to  the  girls.  On  the 
rare  Sunday  evenings  when  he  was  at  home,  the 
family  gathered  about  him  in  the  parlors  to  sing 
hymns,  and  to  hear  his  stories  of  'The  Early 
Days' — stories  told  with  an  exquisite  blending  of 
pathos  and  humor,  seriousness  and  fun.  Then 
came  candy  and  their  happy  good  nights. 

"Always  cheerful,  tender,  thoughtful  for 
others,  forgetful  of  self,  only  those  who  lived 
closest  to  him  realized  what  a  tremendous  finan- 
cial burden  he  steadily  and  patiently  carried. 
Determined  to  keep  the  school  accessible  to  those 
of  moderate  means,  he  knev\^  that  the  expenses 
must  often  exceed  the  income.  Reports  and 
bills  were  paid  monthly.  Sometimes  there  was 
money  on  hand  to  meet  the  reported  deficit. 
Sometimes,  when  there  was  none,  he  would  re- 
ceive the  report  in  silence,  with  blanched  cheek 
and  tightened  lips ;  then,  summoning  a  smile,  he 
would  say  to  the  unwilling  messenger,   'Don't 


386     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

worry  about  this.  You  have  enough  besides  to 
think  about.  It  can  be  managed  some  way,  and 
the  school  is  doing  a  blessed  work.'  And  he 
turned  to  the  task  of  'managing,'  with  a  patient, 
hopeful  courage,  sure  that  the  INIaster  had  given 
him  this  v>^ork  to  do.  Of  his  success  in  manag- 
ing, it  might  be  said  that  the  school  has  never 
been  in  debt.  Before  he  went  away  from  this 
world  some  friends  raised  a  partial  endo\Mnent, 
the  income  from  which  was  an  mispeakable  re- 
lief in  these  last  years  of  brave  suffering  and 
physical  weakness. 

"The  more  he  suffered,  the  more  anxious  he 
seemed  that  the  girls  should  look  on  the  bright 
side  of  things,  and  we  older  people  sometimes 
wondered  if  the  children  really  knew  there  was 
any  pain;  but  to  those  who  did  know,  there  was 
no  other  part  of  his  wonderful,  helpful  life  so 
wonderful,  so  helpful,  so  rich  in  blessing,  as  the 
last  years  of  intense  suffering  and  great  physical 
weakness,  but  unclouded  faith." 

An  article  printed  in  the  Sioux  Falls  Argus- 
Leader  immediately  after  his  death  fills  in  cer- 
tain details:  "The  two  small  rooms  reserved  in 
the  school  for  Bishop  Hare  are,  in  their  simple 
appointments,  in  marked  contrast  to  the  cozy 
luxury  in  other  parts  of  the  institution.  .  .  . 
In  his  library  stands  the  desk  where,  when  weak 
and  suffering  he  labored  on,  surrounded  by  his 


TO  THE  LAST  387 

favorite  books  and  pictures.  .  .  ,  Confront- 
ing him  on  this  desk  was  a  copy  of  a  portion  of 
the  frieze  by  Fra  AngeHco  in  San  Marco,  Flor- 
ence. The  title  of  the  picture  is  'II  Silenzio,' 
and  it  represents  San  Pietro  Martire,  in  one  of 
whose  hands  are  scroll  and  quill,  while  the  other 
is  raised,  with  the  forefinger  pressed  tightly 
against  lips.  What  an  eloquent  sermon  is  there, 
and  how  absolutely  the  Bishop  ever  regarded  its 
teaching!  Xo  matter  how  bitterly  wronged, 
how  cruelly  misjudged.  Bishop  Hare  was  never 
known  to  cry  out,  either  in  complaint  or  in  re- 
taliation. 

"The  inner  room,  his  bedroom,  speaks  of  fam- 
ily ties.  On  the  walls  are  pictures  of  wife  and 
mother — women  v/hose  lives,  we  are  told,  helped 
to  establish  the  Bishop's  beautiful  ideals  of 
Avomanhood,  and  his  life  work  for  women  seems 
a  most  pathetic  tribute  to  their  memory.  .  .  . 
Over  his  narrow  bed  hangs  a  copy  of  a  prayer 
by  Robert  Louis  Stevenson — another  hero  who 
toiled  incessantly  and  smiled  bravely  in  the  face 
of  approaching  death.  At  the  head  of  the  bed 
are  these  words:  'The  Eternal  is  thy  refuge, 
and  underneath  are  the  Everlasting  Arms.'  " 

It  was  indeed  well  for  him  that  in  his  final 
years  he  could  turn  for  rest  and  retirement  to 
two  such  homes  as  he  found  in  All  Saints  School 
and  with  his  sisters  in  Philadelphia  or  Atlantic 


388     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

City,  for  otherwise,  throughout  these  years,  toil- 
ing incessantly  and  smiling  bravely  at  approach- 
ing death  were  his  portion.  In  1903  a  malig- 
nant growth  on  his  face  became  a  subject  of 
frequent  allusion  in  his  family  letters.  In  one 
of  them  he  wrote  of  his  nose — "always  you  know, 
a  prominent  part  of  me,  and  for  some  time  an 
exacting  part  as  well."  In  1904  there  was 
added  to  the  painful  facial  trouble  a  condition 
which  could  not  be  conquered  by  mere  courage 
in  the  endurance  of  physical  suffering.  The 
two  afflictions  placed  him  definitely  for  the  re- 
maining five  years  of  his  life  in  the  hands  of 
physicians  and  surgeons.  On  March  16,  1904, 
he  issued  a  letter  to  the  Clergy  and  Congrega- 
tion of  South  Dakota:  "Defective  blood  circu- 
lation, a  malady  from  which  I  have  suffered  for 
many  years,  and  have  again  and  again  recovered, 
took  a  new  form  March  7th.  I  have  just  re- 
turned from  St.  Paul,  where  I  consulted  a  spe- 
cialist who  concurs  in  the  advice — which  I  was 
unwilling  to  follow — given  me  by  my  physician 
in  Sioux  Falls  and  by  Dr.  H.  A.  Hare  of  Phila- 
delphia, that  I  should  immediately  break  away 
from  all  work,  seek  complete  rest  and  change  of 
scene,  at  least  for  some  weeks,  and  put  myself 
under  a  course  of  special  medical  treatment.  I 
therefore  cancel  all  my  appointments.  I  leave 
in  a  day  or  two  for  Philadelphia  and  then  for 


TO  THE  LAST 

some  other  place.  ...  I  wish  to  dismiss 
all  anxious  thought  (which  is  depressing),  and 
bend  all  my  strength  to  getting  well,  and 
trust,  therefore,  that  my  illness  may  not  be 
referred  to  in  conversation  or  correspondence 
with  me." 

The  next  day,  JMarch  17,  he  wrote  to  the  Pre- 
siding Bishop  about  the  possibility  of  resigning 
his  work.  Bishop  Tuttle  deferred  action  in  the 
matter,  and  said  in  his  reply:  "For  more  than 
thirty-one  j^ears,  and  for  the  longest  term  of  any 
American  ^lissionary  Bishop,  you  have  done  dif- 
ficult frontier  missionary  work  faithfully  and 
lovingly.  Never  a  whimper  has  been  heard  from 
you,  God  bless  you!  The  days  of  self-denying 
heroism  are  not  over." 

In  a  family  letter  from  Atlantic  City,  April 
10,  1904,  Bishop  Hare  wrote:  "I  am  getting 
along  as  well  as  I  could  expect — try  to  manu- 
facture some  fmi  w^hen  there  is  none  to  be  had  in 
any  other  way  to  keep  the  blues  away.  Self- 
indulgent  self-pity  is  the  danger  which  I  most 
fear."  Four  days  later,  in  a  letter  to  Sioux 
Falls,  he  described  an  amusing  colloquy  with  a 
negro  who  was  rolling  his  chair  along  the  Board- 
Walk:  "Yes,"  said  Bishop  Hare,  in  answer  to 
a  question,  "I  have  come  here  to  get  straightened 
out." 

"This  is  the  place  for  that,  suh." 


390     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

"Well,  Bishops  are  pretty  hard  to  straighten 
out — ^not  very  liniber." 

"Well,  I  don't  wonder  you  need  rest — all 
those  big  thoughts  in  your  brain  all  these  years. 
You  are  superannuated,  I  guess." 

"I  don't  know." 

"Oh,  I  don't  mean  you  can't  do  anytJiing. 
You  might  sit  on  a  church  jury.  Many  of  the 
boys  (young  ministers)  can't  stand  quite  plumb, 
you  know,  and  you  might  quietly  show  them  how 
— you're  good  for  that  yet." 

"So  our  conversation  ended,"  Bishop  Hare 
went  on,  "letting  much  daylight  into  my  future. 
I  thought,  'I'll  go  back  to  All  Saints  School 
and  stay  there.  Perhaps  some  of  my  girls  can't 
stand  plumb  yet,  and  I'll  quietly  show  them 
how.'  " 

From  Atlantic  City,  on  May  5,  1904,  he  wrote 
a  "personal  and  confidential"  note  to  Dr.  Lloyd, 
Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Missions,  as  follows: 

"It  is  quite  manifest  that  I  shall  need  relief 
before  long  in  South  Dakota  either  by  a  division 
of  the  field  or  by  the  appointment  of  a  coadjutor, 
supposing  that  relief  to  be  made  canonical  by  the 
next  General  Convention.     .     .     . 

"Pardon  me  if  I  add  in  pencil,  the  easiest  way 
of  writing,  that  I  have  been  troubled  with  my 
present    malady,    mitral    stenosis,^    since    1875, 

1  A  narrowing  of  the  mitral  orifice  of  the  heart. 


TO  THE  LAST  391 

when,  after  my  return  to  Philadelphia  badly 
used  up  in  consequence  of  severe  strains,  Dr.  S. 
Weir  ]\Iitchell  discovered  it  and  put  me  immedi- 
ately in  bed  and  later  (December,  1875)  sent 
me  abroad.  He  prognosed  then  that  as  I  was 
young  my  heart  would  meet  the  defect  by  in- 
creasing its  size  and  muscular  capacity,  provided 
I  was  careful  and  gave  it  a  chance.  Some  years 
later  he  examined  me  and  told  me  his  expecta- 
tions had  been  fulfilled.  The  difficulty  has  re- 
curred, however,  again  and  again.  I  know  now 
that  I  cannot  keep  up  the  struggle  and  that  my 
only  chance  of  any  degree  of  usefulness,  and 
even  of  life  itself,  depends  upon  my  decreasing 
my  expenditure  of  strength  and  using  the  great- 
est care.  How  I  can  carry  out  this  plan  and  yet 
be  of  real  use  to  the  work  is  now  my  study,  and 
therefore  I  have  written  the  note  in  ink  Avhich 
precedes  this.  In  the  past  I  have  been  a  general 
missionary,  often  supplying  vacant  places,  as 
well  as  Bishop.  It  may  be  that  I  can  confine 
myself  to  the  most  essential  work  of  a  Bishop 
and  get  along  without  assistance  whether  by  di- 
vision of  the  field  or  by  a  coadjutor." 

It  was  evident  that  something  must  be  done. 
Dr.  Mitchell  wrote  him  in  August:  "My  thor- 
ough knowledge  of  your  condition  through  many 
years  induces  me  to  urge  upon  you  the  absolute 
necessity  for  some  assistance  in  your  difficult  and 


392      LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

laborious  work.  .  .  .  Either  you  must  have 
a  coadjutor  or  you  must  entirely  give  up  your 
work."  From  other  trusted  sources  came  the 
same  professional  advice.  His  Convocation  Ad- 
dress in  September  told  his  people  frankly  of 
his  condition.  He  said  that  he  had  been  allowed 
to  return  to  South  Dakota  "not  as  being  a  well 
man,  but  as  a  convalescent,"  and  further:  "I 
must  admit  that  the  work  in  South  Dakota  has 
reached  proportions  which  puts  its  proper  over- 
sight and  direction  quite  beyond  my  strength. 
Of  course,  relief  must  be  had  for  me,  and,  what 
is  more  important,  for  this  Missionary  District. 
Of  what  nature  that  relief  shall  be,  it  is  the  pre- 
rogative of  the  House  of  Bishops  to  determine." 
From  South  Dakota  he  wrote  to  his  sister  at  this 
time:  "I  am  standing  being  in  harness  better 
tlian  I  had  dared  to  expect,  and  I  am  behaving 
as  well  as  I  can  in  the  matter  of  saving  myself." 
The  General  Convention  met  in  Boston,  in 
October.  There  was  no  canonical  provision  for 
the  appointment  of  a  coadjutor  to  a  Missionary 
Bishop.  But  when  Bishop  Hare's  needs  were 
made  known  a  new  law  designed  to  meet  them 
— and  them  only — was  passed,  and  in  the  follow- 
ing June,  the  Rev.  Frederick  Foote  Johnson, 
general  missionary  of  Western  Massachusetts, 
was  chosen  "Bishop  Assistant  to  the  Bishop  of 
South  Dakota."     The  relief  thus  accorded  came 


BISHOP  TUTTLE.   BISHOP  JOHNSON  AND  BISHOP  HARE, 
IN  THE  CHAPEL  OF  ALL  SAINTS  SCHOOL 


TO  THE  LAST 

in  the  most  acceptable  form  it  could  have  taken. 
The  sympathy  and  harmony  in  which  the 
younger  and  the  older  Bishop  worked  together 
found  expression  in  many  ways.  In  private 
and  in  public,  Bishop  Hare  summed  up  his  per- 
sonal feelings  concerning  Bishop  Johnson  in  the 
words:  "I  have  found  a  man  like-minded  who 
will  naturally  care  for  your  state."  Writing  to 
his  sister,  soon  after  the  coming  of  his  assistant, 
he  expressed  himself  more  intimately:  "Per- 
haps I  have  not  said  it,  but  Bishop  J.  proves  all 
that  I  could  wish,  both  personally  and  officially." 
The  duties  assigned  to  the  younger  man  of 
greater  physical  strength  were  performed  so  well 
that  Bishop  Hare  could  devote  himself  all  the 
more  effectively  to  those  which  he  retained.  The 
wonder  is  that  he  could  retain  and  perform  so 
many  through  the  few  remaining  years  of  phys- 
ical torture. 

Even  before  Bishop  Johnson  could  first  join 
him  in  South  Dakota,  he  was  obliged  to  inform 
his  people  (November  11,  1905)  that  the  condi- 
tion of  his  face  forbade  his  deferring  a  visit  to 
Philadelphia  for  treatment  long  enough  to  wel- 
come the  new  Bishop  and  explain  on  the  ground 
the  local  conditions.  In  December  he  was  back 
again  in  Sioux  Falls,  and  writing  to  his  sisters: 
"For  a  good  while  now  I  have  frequently  suf- 
fered so  much  pain  that  I  had  to  think  up  a  good 


394.     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

story  and  tell  it  and  laugh  to  keep  myself  from 
crying.  ...  I  am  very  much  liindered  in 
all  my  writing,  for  my  right  eye  has  been  prac- 
tically closed  for  some  little  while.'* 

If  the  full  tale  of  Bishop  Hare's  final  suffer- 
ings were  to  be  told  there  would  be  many  in- 
stances of  the  kind  of  heroism  which  is  suggested 
in  his  telling  a  good  story  and  laughing  to  keep 
himself  from  crying.  Even  in  the  summary, 
which  must  be  sufficient  here  the  quality  of  his 
courage  will  often  reveal  itself  through  words  of 
his  own  which  were  not  intended  to  reveal  any- 
thing of  the  sort.  They  will  speak  for  him  some- 
times at  the  East,  enduring  much,  sometimes  at 
the  West,  both  enduring  and  accomplishing. 

In  February  of  1906,  his  Philadelphia  physi- 
cians overtui'ned  a  plan  he  had  made  to  pay  his 
sisters  a  long  visit  in  Atlantic  City  by  urging 
him  to  accept  tlie  invitation  of  his  friend,  Mr. 
W.  W.  Frazier,  to  join  him  in  a  five- weeks' 
cruise  on  a  steam  yacht  to  Porto  Rico  and 
its  neighborhood.  "Well,"  he  wrote  to  his  sis- 
ters, "if  I  can't  have  my  own  way,  I  am  thankful 
that  the  other  way  throws  me  with  such  dear 
friends  as  the  Fraziers,  and  the  yacht  is  one  of 
the  finest  afloat."  In  spite  of  the  pain  which 
was  now  his  constant  companion,  there  was  much 
to  enjoy  in  this  experience.  When  it  was  fin- 
ished he  returned  to  South  Dakota,  whence,  on 


TO  THE  LAST  395 

3Iay  17,  1906,  he  wrote  to  Dr.  Abbe  of  New 
York,  making  an  appointment  for  an  examina- 
tion at  St.  Luke's  Hospital.  "I  shall  not  ask 
for  a  room  there,"  he  said,  "unless  I  find  on  meet- 
ing you  that  j^ou  think  it  is  necessaiy,  as  my 
taking  a  room  might  exclude  others.  There  are 
many  sufferers,  I  am  sure,  who  need  such  privi- 
leges very  much  more  than  I  do,  and  I  shall  just 
report  to  you  at  the  Hospital  for  treatment  as 
you  may  desire."  In  June  he  was  back  in  Sioux 
Falls,  where  he  preached  the  baccalaureate 
sermon  at  All  Saints  School.  At  the  end  of 
August  an  operation  on  his  face  was  performed 
at  Bar  Harbor,  and  within  a  few  days  Bishop 
Hare  was  planning  to  return  to  South  Dakota. 
The  wound  became  infected,  erysipelas  followed, 
and  he  was  detained  at  Mount  Desert.  Before 
the  end  of  October,  however,  he  was  again  mak- 
ing visitations  in  his  missionary  district.  In  the 
course  of  his  Convocation  Address  of  1906,  he 
reported:  "My  visitations  have  been  not  a  lit- 
tle interfered  with  and  curtailed  by  the  state  of 
my  health,  but  I  have,  notwithstanding,  preached 
and  made  addresses  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
times,  confinned  on  twenty-six  occasions,  and 
celebrated  the  Holy  Communion  twenty-six 
times." 

At  the   Convocation   of   1907   Bishop   Hare 
could  place  himself  thus  on  record:     "Despite 


396     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

all  hindrances,  I  have  done  a  large  amount  of 
office  work  and  have  been  in  the  field  whenever 
it  was  within  my  power.  I  have  preached  and 
made  addresses  ninety-seven  times ;  have  held  six- 
teen confirmations,  and  celebrated  the  Holy 
Communion  twenty-one  times."  In  the  summer 
of  1907  also  he  did  what  he  was  incapable  of 
doing  in  1906 — attended  the  Indian  Convoca- 
tion. What  his  hindrances  were  the  Annual 
Address  did  not  tell.  It  was  not  like  him  to  en- 
large upon  them,  nor  need  they  be  described  in 
this  place  at  greater  length  than  he  used  in  mak- 
ing them  known  to  the  few  who  had  to  be  in- 
formed of  them.  Writing  on  April  14,  1907, 
from  Atlantic  City  to  his  sisters,  whom  he  "had 
not  the  heart  to  tell,"  otherwise,  he  said:  "I 
wish  you  to  know  that  the  surgical  operation 
which  will  cost  me  the  loss  of  my  right  eye-ball 
and  then  probably  bring  relief  from  pain  and 
more  power  to  work,  or  ?  —  has  my  full  ap- 
proval." From  St.  Luke's  Hospital,  New  York, 
on  May  4,  1907,  he  sent  this  brief  bulletin  to  his 
friends:  "The  surgeon  found  the  condition  of 
my  face  on  my  return  to  New  York,  April  13, 
such  as  to  require  a  radical  surgical  operation, 
and  on  April  17th,  in  this  hospital,  he  removed 
successfully  the  right  eye-ball  and  contiguous 
flesh.  He  promises  me  speedy  convalescence,  a 
clean  and  healthy  scar,  freedom  from  pain,  and 


TO  THE  LAST  897 

a  better  time  than  I  have  had  for  years;  and  no 
probable  recurrence  of  the  malady."  A  visitor 
to  the  Hospital,  inquiring  for  Bishop  Hare's 
condition,  was  told  by  his  nurse,  "He  is  the  best 
patient  I  ever  had."  For  all  that  is  implied  in 
this  surgical  experience  "hindrances"  is  a  mild 
term. 

The  private  communication  from  Bishop  Tut- 
tle  already  drawn  upon  throws  a  light  of  its  own 
upon  these  final  years  of  silent  heroism:  "In 
all  my  acquaintanceship,"  writes  the  Presiding 
Bishop,  "I  know  of  no  more  marked  instance  of 
the  brave  soldier.  And  my  admiration  of  him 
and  my  affectionate  memory  of  him  and  my 
reverent  and  grateful  respect  for  his  life  and 
services  are  anj'^thing  but  lessened  when  I  think 
of  the  heroic  fortitude  with  which  he  bore  the 
cruel  pain  and  dire  distress  physical  of  his  later 
years.  No  complaining.  No  letting  up  of 
work.  No  failure  of  interest  in  the  Church. 
No  banishing  of  smiles.  No  pitying  of  self. 
No  reproach  upon  others.  No  relaxing  of  duty 
or  devotion.  But  simply  a  gentle,  yet  firm  and 
firmer  and  firaiest  grip  upon  the  faith  and  hope 
and  love  in  the  Lord  Jesus  which  had  permeated 
all  the  days  of  all  the  years  of  all  his  earthly 
hfe." 

A  small  incident  of  these  later  years  illustrates 
well  the  constant  fact  that  through  all  of  Bishop 


398     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

Hare's  enforced  absences  from  South  Dakota  his 
heart  and  thoughts  were  with  his  people.  One 
day  on  a  train  from  Atlantic  City  to  Philadel- 
phia, one  of  his  brothers-in-law  saw  him  across 
the  aisle  trying  with  great  difficulty  to  read  a 
newspaper.  He  joined  Bishop  Hare,  and  after 
a  little  talk  asked  him  if  there  was  not  sometliing 
in  the  paper  which  he  would  like  to  have  read 
aloud.  The  Bishop  demurred  at  the  trouble  it 
would  cause,  and  then  admitted  that  there  was 
one  thing  he  would  like  to  hear — ^the  weather 
report  from  South  Dakota.  When  the  state  of 
his  eyes  and  general  health  would  permit,  he 
made  the  long  journey  to  the  West,  and  per- 
formed the  duties  which,  in  the  division  of  labor 
with  his  assistant,  he  had  reserved  for  himself. 
The  two  previous  chapters  have  accounted  for 
some  of  his  activities,  especially  in  the  Divorce 
Reform  Campaign,  through  this  period  of  suf- 
fering. On  June  15, 1908,  he  wrote  from  Rapid 
City  to  his  sister:  "These  visitations  are  a  test 
of  one's  strength,  and  I  am  much  cheered  to  find 
how  much  more  I  can  stand  than  I  could  a  year 
or  two  ago."  In  June  of  1908,  after  delivering 
his  Convocation  Address  at  Sioux  Falls  he  was 
cheered  by  encouragement  of  another  sort  in  re- 
ceiving a  fervid  expression  of  gratitude  and 
appreciation,  framed  in  recognition  of  his  seven- 
tieth birthday.  May  17,  and  signed  by  over  a 


TO  THE  LAST  399 

thousand  of  the  clergy  and  laity  of  South  Da- 
kota, both  white  and  Indian. 

In  the  following  year,  the  last  of  his  life,  a 
testimonial  perhaps  even  more  noteworthy  came 
to  him  from  the  JMayor  and  Aldermen  of  Sioux 
Falls.  It  explains  itself,  and  touched  Bishop 
Hare  the  more  closely  because  he  had  felt  that 
his  persistent  fight  against  the  foreign  divorce 
traffic  had  alienated  many  of  liis  fellow  citizens: 

"To  the  Rt.  Rev.  William  Hobart  Hare,  Bishop 
of  South  Dakota: 
"As  the  last  official  act  of  the  Mayor  and  City 
Council  (the  Commission  plan  of  municipal 
government  taking  effect  to-morrow),  we  wish 
to  extend  to  you  our  deepest  sympathy  in  your 
great  affliction  and  to  indicate  the  universal  love, 
respect  and  admiration  with  which  you  are  re- 
garded, not  only  by  your  personal  friends  and 
neighbors,  but  also  by  every  citizen  of  Sioux 
Falls  and  South  Dakota,  and  to  express  to  you 
our  sincerest  congratulations  upon  yom'  ap- 
proaching 71st  birthday  (jNIay  17),  and  the  ear- 
nest hope  that  your  health  may  be  restored  and 
that  you  may  long  be  spared  to  continue  the 
great  work  in  this  state  to  which  you  have  given 
your  life.  The  work  wliich  you  have  done  will 
live  long  after  you  have  passed  away.  The 
civilization  of  our  western  Indians  is  due  more 


400     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

largely  to  you  than  to  any  other  man.  Your  life 
and  labors  have  made  the  world  better.  You  are 
one  of  the  great  missionaries  of  America,  and  it 
is  a  source  of  pride  to  every  citizen  of  Sioux  Falls 
and  South  Dakota  that  you  decided  to  cast  your 
life  among  us.  You  have  built  schools  and 
churches  throughout  the  state,  and  no  history  of 
this  coimnonwealth  will  be  complete  without  giv- 
ing an  important  place  to  the  great  work  in 
w^hich  you  have  beeti  engaged  and  the  magnifi- 
cent results  you  have  accomplished." 

Even  in  this  final  year  he  continued  to  give 
what  he  could  of  his  strength  to  his  work.  The 
last  of  all  his  letters  to  be  quoted  in  this  record 
was  addressed  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Reginald  H. 
Howe.  It  is  dated  Atlantic  City,  March  21, 
1909,  and  ends,  "My  suffering  is  intense  and  con- 
stant; but  the  doctor  (H.  A.  H.)  has  given  me 
a  sleeping  powder  which  has  admirable  power 
by  day  and  by  night.  The  doctors  advise  entire 
change  of  scene  and  air,  and  the  specialist  thinks 
that  suspension  of  the  X-ray  treatment  for  three 
weeks  will  be  wise.  So  I  am  venturing  to  start 
West,  Wednesday,  March  24. 

"Affectionately  your  brother, 

"W.  H.  Hare." 

It  was  in  Atlantic  City,  on  October  23,  1909, 
that  he  died,  suffering  and  courageous  to  the. 


TO  THE  LAST  401 

conscious  end.  Almost  his  last  words  were :  "I 
have  lived  in  South  Dakota  and  have  been  one 
of  its  people  for  thirty-six  years.  I  wish  to  rest 
in  its  soil,  and  in  their  midst."  Arrangements 
were  accordingly  made  for  his  burial  beside 
Calvary  Cathedral  in  Sioux  Falls.  When  the 
train  bearing  his  body  arrived  at  the  station  it 
was  met  by  the  clergy  of  the  state,  many  local 
churchmen,  the  ministers  of  different  denomina- 
tions in  the  city,  the  dean  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Cathedral,  the  mayor,  and  city  officials  and  hun- 
dreds of  citizens  from  all  walks  of  life.  A  pro- 
cession headed  by  the  mayor  accompanied  the 
body  to  the  Cathedral,  where  the  clergy  of  the 
district  became  a  guard  of  honor  until  the  hour 
of  the  funeral.  This  was  four  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon.  At  that  hour  all  business  in  the  city 
was  suspended,  the  street  cars  stopped  running 
for  ten  minutes ;  the  doors  of  the  business  houses 
remained  closed  until  five.  Bishop  Johnson, 
Bishop  Edsall  of  Minnesota,  Dean  Biller  of 
Calvary  Cathedral  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Doherty  of 
Yankton,  President  of  the  Council  of  Advice  for 
the  missionary  district,  conducted  the  service. 
In  the  procession  from  the  church  to  the  grave 
there  were  also  eleven  Indian  and  twenty-two 
white  clergymen.  The  girls'  choir  of  All  Saints 
School  took  part  in  the  singing.  "After  the 
committal  office  had  been  said,  the  most  touch- 


402     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

ing  scenes" — to  quote  from  a  correspondent  of 
The  Living  Church — "were  enacted  by  those 
who  had  been  brought  into  most  inthnate  and 
loving  relationship  with  the  Bishop.  Beginning 
with  the  youngest  girl  in  All  Saints  School, 
each  pupil  and  alumna  of  the  school,  members 
of  the  faculty,  Indian  clergymen,  and  clergy- 
men who  had  labored  with  the  Bishop  from  the 
earliest  years  of  his  episcopate,  and  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Bishop's  family  who  were  present, 
passed  around  the  grave  and  dropped  a  white 
chrysanthemum  upon  the  casket,  until  it  was 
literally  buried  in  flowers.  While  this  was  being 
done  the  choir  of  the  Cathedral  and  the  clergy 
joined  in  singing  hymn  after  hymn.  .  .  . 
The  men  of  Calvary  Cathedral  and  some  of  the 
clergy  took  up  spades  and  filled  the  grave. 
When  the  last  shovelful  was  thrown  and  the 
grave  banked  with  flowers,  the  people  moved  out 
of  the  churchyard,  singing,  'Breast  the  wave. 
Christian.'  Only  loving  hearts  and  hands  per- 
formed for  this  great  Apostle  of  the  West  the 
last  sad  offices.  Even  the  man  who  drove  the 
hearse  asked  that  he  be  allowed  to  do  it  without 
pay,  as  a  tribute  of  affection.  The  mayor  of 
the  city  acted  as  funeral  director." 

On  the  20th  of  the  following  April,  1910,  a 
special  Memorial  Day  was  celebrated  in  Sioux 
Falls.     The  life  and  example  of  Bishop  Hare 


TO  THE  LAST  403 

were  the  objects  which  the  leaders  of  secular  and 
religious  activities  united  again — this  time 
with  more  deliberation — in  honoring.  In  the 
afternoon,  business  was  virtually  suspended,  and 
the  largest  theatre  in  the  city  was  crowded  with 
those  who  came  to  hear  Governor  Vessey  of 
South  Dakota  speak  of  Bishop  Hare  in  his  rela- 
tion to  the  development  of  the  state;  the  Hon. 
E.  A.  Sherman  on  "Bishop  Hare  and  the  City 
of  Sioux  FaUs";  the  Rev.  W.  H.  ThraU,  D.  D., 
Superintendent  of  the  South  Dakota  Congre- 
gational Conference,  on  "Bishop  Hare,  the  Mis- 
sionary," and  the  Right  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas 
O'Gorman,  Roman  Catholic  Bishop  of  Sioux 
Falls,  on  "Bishop  Hare  and  the  Home" — a  gen- 
erous utterance  bearing  witness  to  the  fineness  of 
both  the  Roman  and  the  Anglican  Bishop.  In 
the  evening,  Bishop  Tuttle,  in  Calvary  Cathedral, 
preached  a  memorial  sermon  on  the  text,  "He 
shall  feed  his  flock  like  a  shepherd,"  showing, 
with  deep  feeling  and  affection,  how  truly 
Bishop  Hare  throughout  his  life  had  practiced 
the  shepherd's  virtues  of  thoughtfulness,  tender- 
ness, care  and  protection. 

Bishop  Jolinson,  in  his  Annual  Address  for 
1910,  interpreted  admirably  the  meaning  of  this 
Memorial  Day — "the  like  of  which  has  not  been 
seen  on  this  portion  of  the  map  since  civilized 
people  first  began  to  have  their  habitation  here. 


404     LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  BISHOP  HARE 

When  men  asked  what  the  man  in  whose  mem- 
ory the  day  was  set  apart  had  done  for  South 
Dakota  the  answer  was,  He  did  not  irrigate  the 
desert ;  he  did  not  get  hard  wheat  planted  instead 
of  soft;  he  did  not  run  the  corn  yield  up  from 
thirty  to  fifty  bushels  to  the  acre;  he  did  not  in- 
crease a  man's  capacity  for  production  a  hun- 
dred fold  bj'^  the  invention  of  machinery;  he  did 
not  build  a  railroad.  What  he  did  was  to  spend 
a  space  of  years,  in  what  Socrates  described  as 
the  greatest  work  a  man  could  give  himself  to 
when,  before  his  judges,  he  made  this  his  Apol- 
ogy: 'I  neglected  the  things  which  most  men 
value,  such  as  wealth  and  family  interests,  and 
military  commands,  and  popular  oratory,  and 
political  appointments,  and  clubs,  and  factions 
that  there  are  in  Athens.  I  went  about  persuad- 
ing old  and  young  alike  not  to  think  of  his  af- 
fairs, until  he  had  thought  of  himself;  not  to 
think  of  the  affairs  of  Athens  until  he  had 
thought  of  Athens  herself;  persuading  you  all, 
old  and  young  alike,  not  to  care  chiefly  for  your 
persons,  or  your  properties,  but  first  and  chiefly 
to  care  about  the  greatest  improvement  of  the 
soul.'  " 

These  noble  words  apply  as  truly  to  the  man 
with  whose  life  this  book  has  dealt  as  the  defini- 
tions with  which  it  began.  In  all  his  capacities, 
the  saint,  the  knight,  the  apostle,  the  pioneer 


TO  THE  LAST  405 

persuaded  men  first  and  chiefly  to  care  about  the 
greatest  improvement  of  the  soul.  The  means 
by  which  he  achieved  this  end  were  implied  in 
the  saying  of  Bishop  Tuttle,  already  repeated, 
that  the  sponsors  of  William  Hobart  Hare  if 
asked  to  name  him  in  early  manhood  would  have 
given  the  clear  and  unhesitating  answer — a  Mis- 
sionary Bishop.  At  the  very  beginning  of  his 
days  on  earth  there  were  spoken  over  him  in  bap- 
tism words  which  his  youth,  his  manhood  and  his 
old  age  abundantly  fulfilled — "Christ's  faithful 
soldier  and  servant  unto  his  life's  end." 


INDEX 


Abbe,  Dr.  Robert,  395. 

Aberdeen,  S.  D.,  22i,  223,  381. 

Aiden,  340. 

All  Saints  School,  Sioux  Falls, 
founded,  220;  Bishop  Hare's 
home  at,  2^1;  306,  379,  381, 
383;  home  life  of  Bishop  Hare 
at,  383-386;  387,  395,  401,  402. 

Anpao,  or  Daybreak,  83,  179, 
187,  191. 

Anthon,  Rev.  Dr.  Henry,  8. 

Appleton,  Frank  D.,  112. 

Apostle  to  the  Sioux,  Bishop 
Hare  called,  135. 

Ashley,  Rev.  Edward,  68,  214, 
288. 

Astor,  Mrs.  John  Jacob,  227. 

Atlantic  City,  N.  J.,  388,  389, 
390,  394,  396,  398,  400. 

Augur,  Gen.  C.  C,  127. 

B 

Bar  Harbor,  Me.,  395. 

Baker,  Miss  Annie  M.,  65. 

Barker,  Dr.  Fordyce,  151. 

Belgic,  S.   S.,  252. 

Bell,  Miss,  106. 

Bible,     Bishop     Hare    on     the 

knowledge    and    criticism    of, 

806-314. 


Bickersteth,   Rt.   Rev.  Edward, 

246,  260,  261. 
Biddle,   Miss   E.   N.,  letters   to, 

13,   19,  33,  34,  140,   142,   149, 

158. 
Big  Foot,  Chief,  242. 
Biller,   Rev.  Dean  George,  Jr., 

401. 
Bishops,   House  of,  29,  30,  32, 

37,    143,    218,    219,    246,    247, 

251. 
Bismarck,  Prince  von,  343. 
Black  Hills,  gold  discovered  in, 

122,  123;  purchased  from  the 

Sioux,     124;     Bishop     Hare's 

views    on    the    occupation    of, 

124-131. 
Black  Hills  Deanery,  228. 
Blackfeet  Indians,  67,  191,  288. 
Boarding  Schools  established  by 

Bishop   Hare,  52,  91,  93;  life 

at,  described,  94-101,  104-108. 
BOY  AND  THE  MAN,  THE, 

3-11. 
Brewster,  W.  Y.,  224. 
Brooks,  Rt.   Rev.  Phillips,  250, 

263. 
Brosius,  Samuel  M.,  290. 
Brown,  S.  J.,  187. 
Brul^  Sioux,  112. 
Brunot,  Felix  R.,  227. 
Buckinghamshire,   Earl  of,   150. 


407 


408 


INDEX 


Burt,    Rev.    H.,    105,    134,    2U, 

288,  303. 
Bush,   Major   Joseph,   134,   135. 


Calvary  Cathedral,  Sioux 
Falls,  funeral  of  Bishop  Hare 
at,  401,  402. 

Carlisle  Indian  School,  229,  230, 
278,  294. 

Carthage,  S.  D.,  222,  223. 

"Catholic"  or  "Protestant," 
Bishop  Hare  on  the  use  of 
the  words,  in  name  of  Epis- 
copal  church,   318-332. 

Certain  Dangerous  Tendencies 
in  American  Life,  243. 

Chandler,  Rev.  Thomas  Brad- 
bury, ancestor  of  Bishop 
Hare,  8. 

Chestnut   Hill,   Pa.,   12,   13,  20. 

Cheyenne  River  Agency,  47,  49, 
63,  92,  106,  107,  132,  174,  175, 
191-197,  206,  214,  280,  288. 

China,  Bishop  Hare  visits,  as 
Missionary    Bishop,  270,   274. 

China,  S.  S.,  276. 

Chinamen,  Bishop  Hare's  re- 
marks on  customs  of,  256- 
258. 

Church  and  the  Indians,  The, 
43. 

Church  NezDS,  The,  234,  240, 
251,  315,  318,  357,  358. 

Church   Standard,    The,  276. 

Churchman,  The,  245. 

Clark,  Rev.  A.  B.,  288. 
Clarkson,  Rt.  Rev.   Robert  H., 
65,  162. 


Cleveland,  Rev.  W.  J.,  134,  288. 
Coleman,  Corporal,  115. 
Collins,  Miss  Mary  C,  213. 
Columbia   University,  37. 
Conquest  of  the  Missouri,  70. 
Cook,   Rev.  Joseph  W.,  65,   71, 

95,  103,  136. 
Corman,  340. 
Crewe,  Lord,  146,  150. 
Crow  Creek  Agency,  47,  64,  92, 

174,  18T,  214,  288. 
Custer,  Gen.  George  A.,  47,  131, 
Custer  Massacre,  131. 


D 

Dakota  League  of  Massachu- 
setts, 211. 

Dakota  Territory,  41. 

Dawes  Allotment  Act,  279. 

Daybreak,  The  or  Anpao,  82, 
88,  179,  187. 

Delano,  Columbus,  Secretary  of 
the  Interior,  letter  to,  130. 

Deloria,  Rev.  Philip,  290. 

Dexter,  Henry,  227. 

DIVORCE  REFORM  CAM- 
PAIGN, THE,  354-377. 

Divorce  Reform  movement  in 
South  Dakota,  led  by  Bishop 
Hare,  354-358 ;  address  to  the 
legislature  on,  by  Bishop 
Hare,  358-370 ;  movement 
partially  successful,  370,  373; 
final  victorj'  in,  376. 

Doherty,  Rev.  Robert,  401. 

Dorsey,  Rev.  J.  Owen,  97. 

Draper,  Mrs.  J.  A.,  105. 

Duigan,  Mrs.  M.  E.,  106. 

Dunbar,  Rev.  Mr.,  204. 


INDEX 


409 


Dyer,  Rev.  Dr.  Heman,  143,  149, 
154,  157,  162,  163, 


FRUITS  OF  EXPERIENCE, 

278-353. 
Fuller,  Thomas,  340. 


E 

Eastern  Deakery,  228,  248. 

Eastman,  Mrs.  Charles  A.,  173, 
242n.,   293, 

Edsall,  Rt.  Rev.  Samuel  C,  401. 

Eliot,  John,  apostle  to  the  In- 
dians, 3. 

Ellicott,  J.  C,  Bishop  of 
Gloucester  and  Bristol,  148, 
150, 

Elk  Point,  S,  D.,  223. 

Emery,  Miss  Mary  Abbot,  let- 
ter to,  94. 

Emlen,  George,  ancestor  of 
Bishop  Hare,  6. 

Emmanuel  Hall,  92,  100,  101, 
105. 

Empress  of  India,  S,  S.,  270, 
271. 

F 

Far  West,  steamboat,  67,  70. 
Ferguson,  Rt,   Rev.  Samuel  D., 

297. 
Ffennell,    Rev,    R.    Archer    B., 

132,   133,  134. 
Flandreau,  S.   D.,  76,  107,   179, 

182,  186,  288. 
Flockhart,  Rev.  John,  285,  288. 
Forsythe,  Col.  James  W.,  242. 
Fort   Randall,  S.  D.,  283. 
Fort  Snelling,  Minn.,  17,  19, 
Four  Bears,  Chief,  192, 
Francis,  Miss  Mary  S,,  213. 
Frazier,  W.  W.,  394. 


Gall,   Chief,  baptized,  231, 
Gasmann,  Rev,  J,   E.,  65. 
Gaylord,  Gen.,  82, 
Ghost  Dance,  241.     See  Messiah 

Craze. 
Gloucester  and   Bristol,  Bishop 

of,  148,  150. 
Good,  Rev.  J.  St.  J.,  290. 
Goodale,  Elaine  (See  Eastman, 

Mrs.   Chas.   A.). 
Grant,    President    Ulysses     S., 

letter  to,  124. 
Graves,  Rt.  Rev.  Frederick  R., 

277. 
Graves,  Sister  Mary,  104. 
Gray,  Edgar,  112. 
Green,  John  Richard,  335, 
Gregory  the  Great,   Pope,  325. 
Groton,  S.  D.,  224,  381. 

H 

Hall,  Walter  S.,  68. 

Hampton  Institute,  52,  229, 
278,  294, 

Hanson,  Joseph  Mills,  70. 

Hankow,  China,  274, 

HARD  ROAD  TO  CIVILI- 
ZATION, THE,  172-217. 

Hare,  Charles  Willing,  grand- 
father of  Bishop  Hare,  7. 

Hare,  Elizabeth  Catherine  (Ho- 
bart),  mother  of  Bishop 
Hare,  7,  8,  210,  212,  387. 


410 


INDEX 


Hare,  Rev.  Dr.  George  Enilen, 
father  of  Bishop  Hare,  6,  9, 
270. 

Hare,  Dr.  Hobart  Amory,  son 
of  Bishop  Hare,  21,  71,  98, 
107,  121,  156,  388,  400. 

Hare,  Mrs.  Hobart  Amory,  let- 
ter to,  355. 

Hare,  James  Montgomery,  9. 

Hare,  Mary  Amory  (Howe), 
wife  of  Bishop  Hare,  mar- 
riage, 13;  beauty  of  charac- 
ter, 13;  her  failing  health,  14; 
death,  21 ;  210,  387. 

Hare,  Mary  H.,  sister  of  Bishop 
Hare,  21,  letters  to,  24,  76, 
122,  138,  144,  146,  152,  153, 
162,  178,  210,  212,  271,  358, 
379,   380. 

Hare,  Robert,  ancestor  of 
Bishop  Hare,  6. 

Hare,  Robert,  Jr.,  7. 

Hare,  Robert  Emott,  9. 

Hare,  William  Hobart,  born,  4; 
lineage,  5-8;  at  the  Episcopal 
Academy,  9;  enters  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania,  9; 
distinction  at  college,  10; 
teaches  school  and  studies 
divinity,  10;  takes  deacon's 
orders,  11;  assistant  minister 
at  St.  Ivuke's,  Philadelphia, 
12;  rector  of  St.  Paul's, 
Chestnut  Hill,  12;  ordained 
to  the  priesthood,  12;  marries 
Mar\'  Amory  Howe,  13;  visits 
Minnesota,  14;  awakening  in- 
terest in  the  Indians,  15;  re- 
turns to  become  rector  of 
Church  of  the  Ascension,  21 ; 


loses  his  wife,  21 ;  travels 
abroad,  22;  becomes  Secre- 
tary of  Foreign  Committee, 
Board  of  Missions,  22;  his 
efficient  service,  23;  visits  the 
Mormon  colony,  25;  elected 
Missionary  Bishop  of  Nio- 
brara, 29;  previous  election 
to  an  African  missionary 
bishopric,  30;  election  recon- 
sidered, 31 ;  accepts  the  epis- 
copate of  Niobrara,  32;  rea- 
sons therefor,  35-36;  honorary 
degrees  conferred  upon  him, 
37;  consecrated  bishop,  38; 
begins  his  work,  43;  visits 
Oneida  Mission,  43;  reaches 
Yankton,  46;  his  early  serv- 
ices among  the  Indians,  48- 
50;  his  plan  of  work,  50-53; 
views  on  the  Indian  question, 
54-56;  prayers  of,  57;  first 
report  of,  58-62;  steamboat 
experiences  of,  67-70;  hard- 
ships of  travel  experienced 
by,  71-75,  76,  77;  conceptions 
of  duty  of,  87;  jurisdiction 
organized  by,  88;  address  to 
the  Indians  by,  88-90;  system 
of  boarding-schools  intro- 
duced by,  92-93;  life  at  the 
schools  described  by,  94-107; 
severe  winter  weather  suffered 
by,  100,  102;  known  as  the 
Indian's  friend,  108,  109; 
visits  Red  Cloud  and  Spotted 
Tail  Agencies  as  peace  com- 
missioner, 110-111;  views  on 
the  use  of  soldiers  in  Indian 
country,  112-120;  exposed  to 


INDEX 


411 


danger  of  massacre,  121;  at- 
tacked for  his  views  on  the 
use  of  military,  123;  on  the 
occupation  of  the  Black  Hills 
by  white  settlers,  124-129, 
130;  in  danger  from  hostile 
Sioux,  133,  134;  trials  and 
hardships  endured  by,  136- 
139;  triumphant  faith  of, 
139;  faith  of  his  friends  in, 
139,  140;  considered  for  other 
bishoprics,  140;  uncertain 
health  of,  141 ;  spends  nine 
months  in  Europe,  143;  ocean 
trip  described,  145;  visits 
Crewe  Hall  and  Peckforton, 
146;  Lichfield,  Hereford  and 
Gloucester,  147,  150;  goes  to 
France,  151;  to  Italy,  152; 
serious  illness  of,  at  Venice, 
152;  improving  health  of, 
153;  visits  the  Tyrol,  154;  re- 
turns to  New  York,  156;  and 
to  his  work,  157;  declines  su- 
perintendency  of  St.  Luke's 
Hospital,  160;  sustains  a  suit 
for  libel,  161-168;  sufferings 
of,  in  consequence,  168,  169, 
171;  suit  arbitrated,  171; 
traveling  methods  of,  173; 
discomforts  borne  by,  175- 
179;  defends  the  Indian  char- 
acter, 180;  experience  of, 
with  a  prairie  fire,  183-186; 
Sioux  warrior  lewicaka  and, 
188-191;  journey  of,  to  the 
Cheyenne  River  Agency,  191- 
196;  remarks  of,  on  boarding- 
school  work,  198-200;  baptis- 
mal service  described  by,  201 ; 


visits  the  Standing  Rock 
agency,  203-205;  plans  mis- 
sion there,  206;  lost  on  the 
prairie,  208;  chivalrous  na- 
ture of,  210;  labors  of,  in  be- 
half of  mission  women  and 
children,  211;  faithfulness  of, 
to  his  flock,  212,  213;  his  sjTn- 
pathy,  214;  industry,  215;  and 
judgment,  216;  made  Mis- 
sionary Bishop  of  South  Da- 
kota, 218;  All  Saints  School 
founded  by,  220;  makes  his 
home  at  the  School,  221; 
preaching  tour  by,  222-225; 
on  the  white  settlers  of  Da- 
kota, 225,  226;  organization 
of  jurisdiction  by,  228;  prog- 
ress of  jurisdiction  under 
ministrations  of,  228,  229; 
methods  of  reaching  Indians 
followed  by,  232,  233;  the 
"Messiah  Craze"  and  Ghost 
Dance  described  by,  236-239; 
influence  of,  in  quieting  and 
civilizing  the  Sioux,  243,  244; 
sent  as  Missionary  Bishop  to 
Japan,  245,  248-250;  account 
of  voyage  by,  251-258;  arri- 
val of,  at  Yokohama,  259;  ac- 
tivity of,  in  Japan,  260;  views 
of,  concerning  true  work  of 
American  churchmen  there, 
261,  262,  264-267;  efforts  of, 
for  church  unity,  263;  return 
of,  to  America,  268;  again 
sent  to  Japan,  269 ;  voyage  of, 
thither,  270-273;  work  of,  in 
Japan  and  China,  274-276; 
influence  of,  deeply  felt  there. 


412 


INDEX 


276,  277;  fruits  of  labors  of, 
summarized,  278,  sequitur;  in 
education,  280;  in  evangeli- 
zation, 281 ;  in  prosperity  of 
the  church,  281;  presence  of, 
at  Indian  Convocation,  286, 
288,  293;  part  taken  by,  in 
Mohonk  Conference,  294 ; 
made  Honorary  Chancellor  of 
Hobart  College,  295;  men- 
tioned for  Bishop  of  Massa- 
chusetts, 295;  loving  cup  pre- 
sented to,  by  General  Conven- 
tion, 295,  296;  response  by, 
297-298;  appointed  a  presid- 
ing judge  of  ecclesiastical 
Court  of  Review,  299;  as  a 
writer  and  public  speaker, 
299,  300;  tact  of,  300-302;  na- 
tive humor  of,  303;  teachable- 
ness of,  304;  gentleness  and 
power  of  concentration,  305; 
views  of,  on  the  Bible,  and 
biblical  criticism,  306-314;  on 
temperance  and  prohibition, 
315-318;  on  using  the  word 
Catholic  in  name  of  the  Epis- 
copal church,  318-332;  on 
schisms  in  the  church,  332- 
335;  delivers  addresses  at  the 
Washington  Missionary  Con- 
ference, 335-342;  remarks  of, 
on  the  qualities  of  the  true 
missionary,  343-353 ;  interest 
of,  in  divorce  reform  in  So. 
Dakota,  354;  becomes  leader 
of  reform  movement,  357;  ad- 
dresses the  legislature  on 
Marriage  and  Divorce,  358- 
370;    presses    the    campaign, 


371,  372;  delegate  to  divorce 
law  convention,  374;  sees  re- 
form established,  376;  trib- 
utes to  leadership  of,  377; 
failing  health  of,  379;  two 
journeys  abroad,  379;  on  the 
Spanish  War,  380;  continued 
activity  of,  381;  discharges 
episcopal  duties  in  New  York, 
382;  home  life  of,  at  All 
Saints  School,  383-386;  un- 
selfishness, cheerfulness,  ten- 
derness of,  385;  sufferings  of, 
388;  goes  to  Atlantic  City, 
389,  390;  asks  for  assistance, 
390;  returns  to  So.  Dakota, 
392,  394;  operated  on,  395; 
silent  heroism  of,  397;  seven- 
tieth birthday  of,  celebrated, 
398;  testimonial  to,  from  the 
Mayor  and  Aldermen  of 
Sioux  Falls,  399,  400;  con- 
tinued suffering  of,  400; 
death,  400;  funeral  of,  401, 
402;  memorial  service  for, 
402,  403;  character  and  serv- 
ices of,  summarized,  404,  405. 

Harney,  Gen.  William  S.,  127. 

Harris,  Rev.  Dr.  J.  Andrews, 
11. 

Harrison,  J.  B.,  quoted,  243. 

Hicks,  Miss  E.  E.,  105. 

Henry,  Rev.  F.  W.,  288. 

Himes,  Rev.  J.  V.,  223. 

Hinman,  Rev.  S.  D.,  42,  91,  130. 

Hobart  College,  7,  295. 

Hobart,  John  Henry,  Bishop  of 
N.  Y.,  grandfather  of  Bishop 
Hare,  7,  43. 

Hobart,  Mrs.  John  Henry,  8. 


INDEX 


413 


Hobart,  Rev.  Peter,  ancestor  of 

Bishop  Hare,  7. 
Hobart,  Rev,  William,  150. 
Holly,  Rt.  Rev.  James  T.,  297. 
Hope  Boarding  School,  Spring- 
field, S.  D.,  52,  197,  199,  213. 
Houghton,  Lord,  145,  146,  149. 
Howe,   Julia   Bowen    (Amory), 

13. 
Howe,   Rt.  Rer.  M.  A.  De  W., 

12,   13;   letters   to,   156,   164; 

270. 
Howe,    Mrs.    M.    A.    Be    W., 

letter  to,  63. 
Howe,  Mary  Amory,  See  Hare, 

M.  A.  H. 
Howe,   Rev.   Dr.   Reginald    H., 

letter  to,  400, 
Huntington,  Rev.  Dr.  Wm,  R., 

38. 


82-86;  human  nature  of,  90; 
interest  of,  in  supply  of  food, 
109;  use  of  soldiers  to  con- 
trol, 116-120;  uprising  among, 
131-135;  living  lilse  white 
men,  180;  increasing  civiliza- 
tion of,  187;  best  qualities  of, 
displayed  in  wilderness,  192; 
how  best  reached  by  the 
church,  232;  condition  of, 
steadily  bettered,  278,  279; 
large  proportion  of,  baptized 
Episcopalians,  281 ;  Convoca- 
tion of,  in  Niobrara  Deanery, 
282-292;  Bishop  Hare's  tact- 
ful dealings  with,  300-302; 
missionary  problems  of  the, 
336-343, 

Indians'  Hope  of  Philadelphia, 
211. 

Ives,  Miss  Amelia,  104,  212. 


Iewicaka,  conversion  of,  187, 
188,  190, 

IN  JAPAN  AND  CHINA, 
245-277, 

IN  PARISH  AND  MISSION 
OFFICE,  12-40, 

Independent,  The,  173. 

Indian  Convocation,  268;  de- 
scribed, 282-293. 

Indian  Rights  Association,  110, 
390,  294. 

Indians,  missions  to,  in  Min- 
nesota, 15-19;  Bishop  Hare's 
interest  in,  15,  35,  36;  mis- 
sions to,  in  Dakota,  42; 
Bishop  Hare's  views  on  the, 
54-56,  58-62;  religious  in- 
stincts of,  80,  81 ;  theology  of, 


Japax,  Bishop  Hare's  service 
in,  245,  248,  260-268,  273-276. 

Japanese  and  Indian,  incident 
of,  245-246. 

Johnny  Comes  out  Howling, 
letter  by,  235. 

Johnson,  Rt.  Rev.  Frederick  F., 
chosen  assistant  to  bishop  of 
So.  Dakota,  392;  sympatliy  be- 
tween Bishop  Hare  and,  393; 
401,  403. 

K 

Kehbach,  Miss  Clara  M.,  105. 
King,  Mr.,  115, 


414; 


INDEX 


Langford,    Rev.    Dr.    Wm.    S., 

274. 
Lapham,  E.  E.,  272. 
Later  Studies  on  Indian  Reser- 
vations, 243. 
Lecky,  William  E.  H.,  339. 
Leigh,  Miss  Mary  J.,  65,  201. 
Libel  suit  against  Bishop  Hare, 

161-171. 
Liddon,  Canon  H.  P.,  150. 
Lights  and  Shadows  of  a  Long 

Episcopate,  233. 
Lincoln,     Abraham,     President, 

U.   S.,  233. 
Littlejohn,  Rt.  Rev,  Abram  N., 

153n. 
Littlejohn,  Mrs.  A.  M.,  153. 
Living  Church,  The,  402. 
Lloyd,  Rt.  Rev.  Arthur  S.,  342, 

390. 
Lower   Brul^   Agency,  47,   134, 

288,  290. 

M 

McKiM,  Rt.  Rev.  Johw,  277. 
McLaughlin,  Major  James,  204, 

209. 
Madison,  S.  D.,  222,  389. 
Marriage   and   Divorce,    Bishop 

Hare  on,  358-370. 
Medicine  Root  Station,  201. 
"Messiah    Craze,"    235-243. 
Minnecoujou     Sioux,     67,     191, 

288. 
Missionaries,     qualifications     of 

true,  343-353. 
MISSIONARY       TO       TWO 

RACES,  THE,  218-244. 


Missouri  River,  17,  19,  30,  41, 
42,  47,  50;  conditions  of  travel 
on,  67,  70,  71 ;  84,  95,  98,  100, 
102,  105,  162,  283,  284. 

Mitchell,  Dr.  S.  Weir,  141,  151, 
378,  391. 

Modoc  massacre,  the,  45,  46. 

Mohonk  Conference,  294. 

Moltke,  Gen.  von,  343. 

Mormons,  Bishop  Hare's  im- 
pressions of  the,  25-28. 

Morris,  Rt.  Rev.  Benjamin  W., 
297. 

Morris,  Rev.  John,  232. 

Muhlenberg,  Rev.  Dr.  W.  A. 
160. 

My  Friend  the  Indian,  209. 

N 

Nichols,  Rt.  Rev.  William  F., 
252. 

Niobrara,  missionary  jurisdic- 
tion of,  19,  29,  30,  32;  condi- 
tions in,  41,  42;  difficulties  of 
travel  in,  71-73;  severity  of 
winter  in,  98-102;  merged  in 
missionary  district  of  South 
Dakota,  219. 

Niobrara  Deanery,  228,  248,  282. 

Niobrara  League  of  New  York, 
211. 

No  Heart  (Indian),  204,  207. 

Norris,  Miss  Ella,  105. 


OoALLALA  Sioux,  112,  288. 
O'Gorman,    Rt.    Rev.    Thomas, 
370.  403. 


INDEX 


416 


Oneida   Indians,   7,  39,  43,  44, 

210, 
Osaka,  Japan,  260. 
Outlook,  The,  293. 


Parks,  Dr.,  145. 

Peabody,    Miss    Helen    S.,   221, 

383. 
Peabody,    Miss    Mary    B.,    221, 

304. 
Penn,  William,  6. 
Pennsylvania,  University  of,  6, 

7,  9,  10. 
Peters,  Rev.  Hugh,  8. 
Philadelphia,  Pa.,  6,  7,  9,  10,  11, 

12,   20,   21,   22,  29,   211,   387, 

388,  391,  394. 
Philadelphia      Public     Ledger, 

374. 
Pine   Ridge   Agency,   230,   240, 

288,  290. 
PIONEER    IN    NIOBRARA, 

A,  41-79. 
Ponca  Indians,  47,  96,  288. 
Potter,  Rt.  Rev.  Alonzo,  6,  12, 

27. 
Potter,  Rt.  Rev.  Henry  C,  38, 

295,  296,  299,  382. 
Pratt,    Orson,    apostle    of    the 

Mormons,  27. 
Pratt,  Gen.  Richard  H.,  229. 
Princeton,  N.  J.,  4,  9. 
Prohibition,       Bishop       Hare's 

views  on,  315-318. 
"Protestant"       or      "Catholic," 

Bishop    Hare   on   use   of  the 

words  in  name  of  Episcopal 
Church,   318-332. 


R 

Raebttrn-,  Mr.,  104. 

Red  Cloud,  Chief,  83. 

Red    Cloud    Agency,    110,    111, 

115,  119,  124,  125. 
Red  Dog's  Camp,  20. 
Red  Owl,  Rev.  George,  290. 
RELIGION,    SCHOOL    AND 

GOVERNMENT,  80-135. 
Riggs,  Rev.  Stephen  R.,  43. 
Robinson,  Rev.  John.,  175. 
Robinson,    Lieutenant,    115. 
Rogers,   Rev.   R.   C,  letter  to, 

99. 
Roman  church,  Bishop  Hare  on 

a  secession  to  the,  332-335. 
Rosebud  Agency,  230,  236,  268, 

288. 
Ross,  Rev.  Amos,  201,  290. 


St.  Andrews  Statioit,  201. 

St.  Elizabeth's  School  and  Mis- 
sion (see  Standing  Rock). 

St.  John's  Boarding  School,  53, 
195,  203,  280. 

St.  Luke's  Church,  Philadelphia, 
12,   13,   20,   37. 

St.  Luke's  Hospital,  N.  Y., 
160,  396. 

St.   Luke's  Mission,  203. 

St.  Mark's  Academy,  Philadel- 
phia, 10. 

St.  Mary's  Boarding  School,  52, 
91,  105,  213,  280. 

St.  Paul,  337. 

St.  Paul's  Church,  Chestnut 
Hill,  Bishop  Hare  rector  of, 
12,  14,  19. 


416 


INDEX 


St.  Paul's  Boarding  School,  52, 
92,    93;    life    of,    94-99,    103, 
107,  108;  166,  230,  280. 
St.  Paul's  College,  Tokio,  276. 
St.  Paul's  Mission,  193,  203. 
Sans  Arc  Sioux,  67,  191,  288. 
Santce  Indians  and  Agency,  47, 

91,  97,  105,  138,  179,  288, 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  315. 
Slianghai,   China,  270,   274. 
Shaw,  Robert  Gould,  109. 
Sherman,  Hon.  Edwin  A.,  376, 

403. 
Sherman,  Gen.  W.  T.,  127. 
Shippen,     Ann,     ancestress     of 

Bishop  Hare,  7. 
Sibley,  Gen.  Henry  H.,  17. 
Sioux     City     (Iowa)     Journal, 

127. 
Sioux  Falls,  S.  D.,  23,  220,  221, 
228,  249,  251,  269,  276,  304, 
318,  354,  356,  357,  367,  368, 
371,  376,  377,  381,  388,  389, 
392,  393,  395,  398,  399,  401, 
402,  403. 
Sioux  Falls  Argus-Leader,  371, 

386. 
Sioux  Falls  Press,  236. 
Sioux    Indians,   42,   45,    67,   81; 
religion   of,   82-86;    106,   109, 
112,   125,    126,    127,    128,    129, 
131,   135,   187,   191;  "Messiah 
Craze"  among,  236-243. 
Sioux  Reservation,  122,  279. 
Sisseton    Agency    and    Indians, 

288,  289. 
Sitting  Bull,  Chief,  230. 
Smith,  Rt.   Rev.   Benjamin   B., 

38. 
Smith,  George  A.,  27,  28. 


South  Dakota,  Bishop  Hare 
made  bishop  of,  218;  white 
settlers  of,  225;  missionary 
jurisdiction  of,  organized, 
228;  condition  of  divorce  laws 
in,  354-370;  divorce  reform 
accomplished  in,  376;  affec- 
tion for  Bishop  Hare  in, 
399;  services  of  Bishop  Hare 
to,  404. 

Spirit  of  Missions,  The,  179. 

Spotted  Tail,  Chief,  121,  180, 
203. 

Spotted  Tail  Agency,  111,  112, 
119,  124,   125. 

Springfield,  S.  D.,  197,  212,  219, 
288. 

Standing  Rock  Agency  and 
Mission,  203,  206,  209,  231, 
236,  240,  280,  288,  290. 

Stanforth,  Mrs.,  97. 

Stevens,  Rt.  Rev.  William  B., 
22. 

Swift,  Mrs.  Henry,  106. 

Swift,  Rev.  Henry,  106,  132, 
191,  192,  193,  195,  196,  203, 
204,  205,  206,  207. 

Swift,  Jonathan,  296. 

Swinton,  William,  326. 


Thackeray,  Wm.  M.,  296. 
Thomson,  Archdeacon  Elliot  H., 

297. 
Thrall,  Rev.  W.  H.,  372,  403. 
TO  THE   LAST,  378-405. 
Tokio,  259,  264,  274,  276. 
ToUemache,  Lord,  146. 


INDEX 


417 


Trinity       College       (Hartford, 

Conn.).  37. 
Truth  Teller  (see  lewicaka). 
Tuttle,  Rt.   Rev.  Daniel  S.,  23, 

215,  277,  389,  397,  403,  405. 
Two  Kettle  Sioux,  288. 


Van  Scottee,  A.,  292. 
Vaughan,  Rev,  Dr.  C.  J.,  150. 
Vermilion,  S.  D.,  224. 
Vessey,  Gov.  Robert  S.,  403. 

W 

Wahpetok  Siottx,  289. 
Walker,   Gen.   Francis   A.,   127, 

128. 
Walker,  Rev.  Luke  C,  65,  88, 

290. 
Wazazah  Sioux,  289. 
Welsh,  William,  29,  34,  42,  48, 

87. 
Whetstone  Agency  (see  Spotted 

Tail  Agency). 
Whipple,    Rt.    Rev,    Henry    B., 

16,  38,  39,  162,  233. 
White  Ghost,  Chief,  188. 
White  Wolf,  Chief,  207,  208. 
Wicks,  Rev.  W.  J.,  288, 
Wilberforce,   Rt,    Rev,    Samuel, 

149. 


Williams,    Rt.    Rev.    Channing 

M.,  246,  261,  297, 
Williamson,  Rev.  J,  P.,  42, 
Willing,     Charles,    ancestor    of 

Bishop  Hare,  7. 
Willing,     Margaret,     ancestress 

of  Bishop   Hare,  6. 
Winthrop,  Gov.  John,  8. 
Wolfe,    Miss    Catherine    Loril- 

lard,  227. 
Woman's  Auxiliary  to  Board  of 

Missions,  211. 
Wounded    Knee    Creek,    battle 

at,  236,  240,  242, 


Yankton,   So,   Dakota,  42,  46, 

63,  76,  78, 
Yankton    Agency,    47,    65,    71, 

94,  99,  102,  158,  174,  189,  280, 

283,  285. 
Yanktonnais  Sioux,  67,  96,  106, 

289,  292, 
Yeddo,  Japan   (see  Tokio). 
Yokohama,  258,  268,  271,  273. 
Young,   Brigham,  26,   27,   28. 
Young,  Rev.  H,  St.  G.,  103,  183, 

186. 


Zitkano  duzahan,  Indian   name 
for  Bishop  Hare,  63. 


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